Get A Grip (Kathrine)

Matthew seriously needed to get a grip. On everything. Literally, ever since the ball, he felt like his entire world was upside down. Everything just seemed wrong – felt weird. And it all centered around Ari, and branched out from there. It had only been a few days, but Matthew hadn’t talked to Ari at all. He’d managed to avoid that, at least so far – and he wasn’t sure if it was because he didn’t want to see her, or if he was just far too embarrassed to face up to what had happened at the ball. Actually, that was a lie. He was sure, and he was sure that it was the latter. Because if he had to talk to her, what would he say? Sorry for almost kissing you and then running away? Yeah, who said that out loud to someone? Really, what Matthew honestly wasn’t sure about, was whether he was more upset over the fact that he’d almost kissed Ari, or the fact that he hadn’t. And talking to her would mean he had to figure it out way too soon.

But avoiding her wasn’t exactly easy. They were in the same house, and the same year, which meant she was everywhere that Matthew needed to be. He’d had to get up at the crack of dawn every day to make it out and eat breakfast before her, and then he usually ran down to the lake and climbed a tree to hide, not coming down until it was time for classes to start. And then, he made sure that he was late to class so that he could take a seat in the back and Ari couldn’t approach him without disrupting the professor. Thankfully, in Defense, he was partnered with Arwen, so that wasn’t a problem. The point was, that most of his day involved trying to be where Ari was not. And right now, he was fairly certain that she was at dinner, with the rest of the school. Which was exactly why Matthew was using this time to get to the library.

Ducking into the room, Matthew lingered by the door for a few moments, just to be absolutely sure that Ari wasn’t here. It was lucky that her hair was so bright, because otherwise it might be harder to pick her out. She definitely wasn’t here, so Matthew sighed in relief and stepped further in. Since it was dinnertime, the room was almost entirely empty. There was a grumpy looking seventh year sitting against the wall, and what looked like a first or second year girl by herself at one of the tables. Every other table was open for Matthew to choose from, but for some reason, he looked back at the young dark-haired girl. Maybe it would be a good idea to sit with her. Maybe talking to a child would be good for him – get him out of this ridiculous mindset. So, his mind made up, Matthew headed over to her table, setting his books down and taking a seat across from her. ”Hi,” he said, not bothering to ask if she minded, but his voice friendly. ”I’m Matthew,” he told her, because she would probably ask eventually anyway. It was probably more polite to just open his defense book and start studying, but Matthew wasn’t polite to begin with, and talking would distract him more than reading, so he asked her, ”What are you studying?”

Hogwarts was a nice enough place, and Kathrine had decided that pretty quickly. It wasn’t that it was extremely different to her home country here in the United Kingdom, other than the language that most people spoke. She didn’t even get odd looks because of her accent, although a few people had asked her about it when she’d been in Diagon Alley during the summer. She hadn’t even minded telling them, because she was certain she would never see them again. But the school itself was like an oasis, where everybody could know one another be it in good or bad ways, and nobody found it odd. It was probably much like how Durmstrang may have been, had she ended up getting the chance to go. The only thing that worried Kathrine was that she literally had no friends.

She had spoken to a housemate not so long ago, and it had been nice. Kathrine wouldn’t say that they were friends exactly, but they had gotten along reasonably well and she’d found out that Carmen was in almost the same boat as Kathrine was. In fact, she thought that is had to be even harder for the older girl to adapt, having come into Hogwarts later than the rest of the students her age. But since that day, Kathrine had returned to her usual routine of classes, study, reading and sleep. It wasn’t that she hadn’t liked stepping out of her comfort zone, no matter how small that step was, but she didn’t really want to change everything all at once.

She’d skipped dinner- again- and instead taken to the library, which was even quieter than it usually was because many of the students were in the Great Hall. Not that she minded, because the quiet was what she knew best how to deal with. Her pen was scrawling across a piece of paper, her hand moving quickly as she read from a book on Astronomy. It was a fairly interesting subject, though not one she would have chosen to research on her own. She had an assignment in that class and so she figured she might as well do it now rather than leave it. Then she would read for a while before bed, she’d promised herself.

Kathrine was halfway through writing those notes on Astronomy when she head someone place their things on the table and drop into the seat opposite her. She didn’t look up right away, finishing the point that she had been writing, before dragging her gaze across the table and to the face of the intruder. He was considerably older than her, that much was obvious, and that alone made Kathrine’s eyes widen very slightly. “Hello,” she said quietly, because while she’d managed a decent conversation with Carmen, the girl was at least around her age, and Kathrine really wasn’t a very social person. “Kathrine,” she replied, “I mean, I’m Kathrine.” She eyed the books that he had placed on the desk, and wondered why he hadn’t already started to study. Then he asked her what she was studying, and she tilted her head in confusion. “Astronomy,” she said, “not my favourite of subjects, but we have an assignment. What are you studying?”

To Matthew, first year hardly felt long ago at all. It felt as though only yesterday he was rampaging around the school boasting about how awesome his big brother was, looking desperately for ways to learn about all of the fire spells that magic had to offer. He had never felt like a lot of time had passed between then and now – had definitely never felt like he was changing. But here he was, stressing over a girl, practically a master of the spells he’d once wanted to learn, and looking across the table at a perfect representation of just how much he’d changed. Because the girl sitting across from him was tiny, and a bit frightened looking – just a child, compared to Matthew. Which was enlightening and depressing, because he couldn’t pinpoint when he’d stopped being a child himself. But it was clear that he wasn’t one – not anymore. Maybe it was just time that he accepted it.

At first, the girl looked a little afraid by his joining her – as though she expected him to eat her or something. But after a moment, she gathered her wits enough to at least say hello back. Matthew was sure that he had never been that shy, even on his very first day. He was more the type of first year to run around pestering everyone, especially those older than him. The girl introduced herself as Katherine, and Matthew smiled back at her. ”Nice to meet you,” he replied, his voice infused with a bit more friendliness than usual in hopes of making the girl feel less uncomfortable. ”Astronomy is pretty cool – mostly because Professor Gracen is the best, though,” Matthew told her, grinning. ”Has she given you hot chocolate yet? She’s good for that. Well worth the walk up to the top of the tower.”

What was he studying? It was a bit of a useless question, because the chances that Matthew would actually end up studying today were slim. He was usually a pretty good student, but his mind had been elsewhere in the past few days. Today was no exception. But, rather than telling Katherine that, Matthew lifted his defense book and held it out toward her so that she could read the cover. ”Defense. Though, it’s a little hard to study for, it’s mostly practical. But I need to do some research on a few of these that I’m not familiar with.” That didn’t mean that he actually would, but saying that he needed to wasn’t really a lie.

Still not in the mood to actually open his book, Matthew let it fall back to the table and looked over at the girl. ”What house are you in, anyway?” Matthew asked her, because he couldn’t tell by what she had on. ”And how come you’re not at dinner?” The question was merely out of curiosity. He couldn’t really judge since he wasn’t at dinner either. But he had a good reason not to be, and quite honestly thought that skipping a Hogwarts meal without a good reason was madness. ”And what do you think of the castle so far? It’s pretty incredible, isn’t it?”

Kathrine often wondered what it was like for the older students, who had a much larger workload than she did. At this point, it was fairly light and enjoyable but she knew that it would increase soon enough. Perhaps in her fifth year when she would take the all important OWLs. That was around the age that she thought Matthew to be, give or take a year. To him, she was probably much like a child, while to her he was slightly intimidating due to his being older.

"It's nice to meet you as well," she said, "I'm sorry. I'm not really used to talking to people." Especially not people so much older, she added silently. She figured that being honest would help explain why she wasn't very talkative. "Some people assume that I'm just shy," she added with a shrug. She wasn't shy at all, but much preferred listening to conversation. The Ravenclaw often thought that many people wouldn't understand the value of listening to others, or even other conversations. She would be the first to admit that she was guilty of the occasional eavesdropping, though usually it was because she couldn't avoid hearing what was being said in the conversations around her.

Kathrine smiled a little and said, "of course it's cold, we go up there in the middle of the ni- oh.. you mean cool as in good?" The brunette blushed lightly in embarrassment. She was generally pretty good with English, but sometimes she got a little mixed up with the double meanings of certain words and phrases. "Yes, she has," the girl replied with a smile, "I much more enjoy the actual stargazing than drawing maps and what not, is all." While in most subjects Kathrine preferred the theory side of her classes, when it came to Astronomy she liked the practical parts better. Who didn't enjoy having a close look at the stars and planets?

The girl pulled a face at the mention of Defence Against the Dark Arts. Not that she thought it was pointless or anything. On the contrary, she loved the though of being prepared for magically hostile situations. But as opposed to Astronomy, she didn't enjoy the fact that Defence asked for a fair amount of practical work. Though their lessons contained theory as well, it wasn't nearly as much as she would have liked. However, she knew that it was necessary. "Do you enjoy Defence?" she asked, "I've read a number of books for it, but I am not very good with the actual spellwork. I'm learning, though, so that's good. Since information on what to do isn't really any use to defend yourself without the actual execution."

Kathrine loved the fact that she was in Ravenclaw, because the house of blue's signature traits were things that she valued very much. Not that she discredited any of the other houses, as those traits were important as well, but despite her lack of regular interaction with her housemates, she felt that she had been placed in the right house. "I'm a Ravenclaw," she replied, "and you?" Raising an eyebrow very slightly, she smirked and said, "I wanted to finish this assignment. Why aren't you at dinner?"

"It is quite wonderful," she replied, "and interesting. I've read about a lot of things, but I haven't really explored much. Apparently there are a lot of passageways and secret places. I like the lake, as well. But this would be my favourite place. There are so many books and journals. It's amazing."

Well, at least right away this girl came off as honest. Because not everyone just came out and admitted that they weren't the best at talking to people. Matthew smiled at the girl and shrugged. "You don't have to apologize - I don't mind." Arwen was far quieter, anyway. She also stuttered something awful, though she'd been speaking far better this term. Either way, Matthew wasn't one to judge someone for something as harmless as that. "Though, you may want to get used to talking to people - or at least having people talk to you. It's a bit hard to dodge in this place. But most people are friendly." Matthew tilted his head at what she said next, and questioned her in response. "If you aren't shy, what is it then?" Matthew asked curiously. He couldn't imagine what other reason someone would have for not talking much - Matthew hardly ever stopped talking.

Matthew couldn't help but laugh when Kathrine informed him how it was obviously cold in the astronomy tower, but to his credit he did stifle it with his hand immediately. Though, his wide grin didn't falter immediately while he watched her catch herself and recover. It wasn't that he hadn't noticed her accent at first - but a lot of people had accents. It wasn't until she misspoke that he realized she may be freshly from somewhere else. "Sorry, I didn't mean to laugh. And you caught yourself, at least. Where are you from?" Probably one of the scandinavian countries or something, but Matthew was absolutely terrible at deciphering accents. "Yes, well, I just enjoy the hot chocolate," he informed her, grinning.

"I enjoy it when I'm the one doing the practicing, and not the one being practiced on," Matthew replied happily, laughing. "Especially this year - fifth year involves way more advanced spells than usual. They suck to get hit with." But they weren't too bad, or he was sure they wouldn't be allowed to practice them on each other. "I also enjoy it because it's the only class that teaches us any fire spells, and I always like to learn new ones. And don't worry, you'll get better at it." Matthew assured her. "It's just a bit tricky at first, if you aren't comfortable with your wand yet."

Ravenclaw. No wonder she was quiet. Ravenclaws always seemed to be - except for Ollie's stupid girlfriend. She was plenty talkative. "One of my best friends is in Ravenclaw," Matthew informed the girl. "I'm in Slytherin," he responded. But his smile faltered ever so slightly when she returned his second question. Kathrine's reason for not being at dinner was so typical - and made complete sense. Matthew should probably make up something similar, but couldn't really see the point in lying. What difference did it make? So, he just shrugged. "I'm avoiding someone," he told her simply, unconsciously glancing toward the door just to make sure there wasn't a particular red head striding through it. "Though, I do also need to get my assignment done," he added. "I just decided to wait until now to do it, that's all." While Kathrine, on the other head, was probably working weeks ahead of her schedule. Ravenclaws were weird like that.