Curious Nature PV Celeste Wetherstead Closed

Some people liked spend rainy afternoons sitting in the cosy common rooms, fire crackling merrily and steam curling from piping teacups, immersed in a good book. Others liked to convene and cavort with their friends. Others still would take advantage of the rhythmic pitter-pattering and lethargic atmosphere to crawl under cotton blankets and take a nice nap. In short, there are a hundred and one things you can do on a rainy day, but there is one thing that I highly doubt anyone except Celeste Wetherstead was doing.

As icy rain pounded down relentlessly on the castle grounds, Celeste, lying supine in a mud puddle, wriggled a little and blinked water out of her eyes. Mud crusted her short hair into a thick brown helmet, and her mother would despair at the sight of those stains on her grey cloak. Nonetheless, Celeste wouldn't have given this hobby up for the world. For tortoises and sand, maybe. But not for the world.

There was nothing like lying in the mud during a rainstorm to make you contemplate the futility of life, not to mention appreciate the existence of towels. Celeste often thought about this.

Her weekly existential crisis was interrupted by the unmistakable squelch of footsteps and the arrival of a pair of black shoes. She craned her neck backwards to search for their owner, her head squishing against the soft mud, and found herself staring up at a mildly familiar face. Another Ravenclaw. What was her name... Winnifred, was it? Or something like that? Winnifred Carp? Oh, it'd come to her. Lovely hair she had, anyway, copper locks framing a pale, freckled face. Celeste was personally not a big fan of freckles and was exceedingly happy for her lack of them, but on other people they looked nice.

Did she think Celeste was injured? Aw, how flattering. "Oh hello," she said, abruptly sitting up and casually swallowing the mouthful of rainwater she had accumulated. "I'm Celeste. I'm well. I'm aware, yes." She did not consider that the disjointed nature of her response would cause any confusion, nor that her next action might not be received warmly.

She reached out with her dirty, mud-coated hand and grabbed Winnie—oh yes, that was her name!—by the left hand, before she began to shake with the eager vigour of a power-hungry alien who has just been told that hand-shaking is a surefire path to world domination, smearing the mud still clinging to her palms all over the other girl's.

Interacting with @Winnie Harper

Winnie seemed taken back and perhaps even more confused when the blonde haired girl sat up straight and spoke to her as if there were nothing wrong with her rather curious nature. "Oh, okay..." She paused, tilting her head as her mind began to ponder other things. "Are you... Sad?" Sometimes when one was sad, they enjoyed the rainfall, right? Not that Winnie was very different. She had also come out to basically dance in the storm, but she hadn't thought about laying in a mud puddle. The pitter-patter of the rain could be therapeutic, perhaps she should give it a try?

She was contemplating getting down on the ground with her when suddenly a muddy hand reached out to grab her own. She couldn't help the gasp that escaped her mouth, "Oh!" She said in surprise, before realizing that Celeste was trying to shake her hand. "I'm Winnie." She stated, as if they were being introduced to each other. That was what one did when they met someone, right? "I know your name is Celeste." She had written the name down in her book of students that she kept. She wrote all the first year's names down after the sorting ceremony. Winnie enjoyed making observations about them, but she had never written anything about Celeste after the first day. The notebook just read 'Celeste Wetherstead. Blonde. Ravenclaw', but now she had something else to write about her! How exciting.

"Shall I... Join you?" She asked with a small smile, already releasing that hand so she could push herself down onto the wet mushy grass. She didn't lay down just yet, however. "Is this something you do often?" She had to know what the reason was. If the girl was sad, she would sit with her for however long she needed!