First Day of School Jitters PV Closed

What happened to him? Did he agree to leave when they found a new, living teacher?

Anastasia began to shrug before shaking her head instead. Her mother had always told her that shrugging was far too casual and most improper for a well bred girl to do, but she had picked it up in her first few days at school. That wouldn't do. She wasn't even a week into school and she was already starting vices her mother had forbidden since childhood. "Nobody knows quite how he died, although there's stories. And I really don't know how we ended up with a living teacher, but I know that I for one, am quite glad that we did,” Anastasia replied. They were nearing the classroom, but were on the earlier side, so they had a bit more time to talk. She wanted to find out a bit more about this girl before she made up her mind about her, so she decided to start probing a bit. 

"So, what's your family like?" she asked the other girl casually. That was a rather open ended question that should get the other girl talking. From what Anastasia could tell so far, she liked to talk and didn't have the same issues with revealing information that Anastasia did. It also said quite a bit the girl based on exactly what she started to say. 

Katherine was starting to like Ana more and more. She was nice even if she did do some weird things once in a while as if correcting herself. Katherine thought that was strange. But when she asked Katherine about her family Katherine had to try hard not to freeze up and not answer.
"My mom's nice, I guess." That was all she said. she didn't really want to talk about her absent father any more than she wanted to talk about how rude she was, but at least being rude could be corrected. Not being there for your child when they had the biggest accident of their life is neither forgivable or could ever be made up. Katherine tried not to react poorly to the question but she couldn't stop herself before asking a question she knew would be considered rude in her mother's eyes.
"Why do you keep correcting yourself all the time. When you were asking if I was muggle-born. And you did it when you were answering my question about the ghost teacher. Do you have tics or something?" Katherine bit her lip the moment she said it. Her anger was very evident in the question and she had a feeling that the girl would be offended by the question. Why did she have to be so rude? This had nothing to do with impaired memory at all and her mother would have grounded her for weeks if she had heard Katherine say it. She felt a tear slide down her freckled cheek. From the weight of the question Ana had asked her or from the guilt of her own she had no idea.

Anastasia made a mental not of the girl's short and seemingly rather forced answer. If she said that er mother was nice, that meant that either her father was simply awful, or not even in the picture. Anastasia rather wanted to ask, but decided against it. How could she ask a girl she had literally met minutes ago about a topic that was clearly sensitive? She'd figure out a bit more, and fill in any blanks herself. 

Anastasia was about to ask another question when Katherine asked another question herself. Anastasia's cheeks flushed when the other girl finished. How was she supposed to answer that question? If she decided not to answer altogether like she wanted to, then it would be clear that the correcting herself was a part of something bigger. The truth wasn't all that appealing either, but if she lied, the other girl might be able to tell. Generally, Anastasia was a quite good liar, but she would rather not lie to a girl she'd just met. That wasn't exactly to foundation you wanted for any sort of relationship. Then, she remembered the last bit of the girl's question. Anastasia knew exactly what tics were, but most wizards didn't so she could just act like she thought Katherine was talking about the other kind of ticks, the nasty little bug kind. "Um, no. I don't have ticks," she said slowly. "Wizards don't get ticks. There's magic to prevent them."

"Sorry," Katherine muttered. She told herself not to be so rude. She decided to go with a safer question.
"Um, where are you from?"
Personally, Katherine hated this particular question. She didn't know where she was from and her mother said it wasn't important. She always just told people she was from America and left it to that. She knew she had lived there at one point, so it was the closest one to the truth in Katherine's opinion.
Katherine's mother had always supported her, but when she said that Katherine didn't need to know where she was from, she felt a bit betrayed. Her mother was hiding things from her that Katherine never understood, but she learned to be used to the strange behavior.
"I'm from America. I moved here a few years ago. My mom wanted to move to the U.K. and I had always wanted to live in Europe so it worked out. I think I like it here better than I could ever like an American wizarding school anyway. The famous Hogwarts and me, the forgetful American girl gets to go here for school. It's so cool don't you think."
'Stop acting like a kid, Katherine. You sound like an idiot,' she told herself. She hated that she wanted to be normal. Her mother had always told her to be as weird as you want to be and never let someone strike you down for it.
Katherine smiled kindly at Ana.

"I'm from London," Anastasia told the girl. She noted the change of subject. That was certainly understandable, given the girl's misstep. She decided to roll with it. She could try to find out more about the girl's family life later. She listened to the other girl's statement about being from America. She was about to reply when something struck her as odd about the girl's choice of words. It was rather strange that she identified herself as "forgetful". She wondered if there was a story behind that. After all, using forgetful as a key trait when describing yourself to a near stranger was rather odd. She didn't say anything else, since the girl would either choose to tell her more about that or she wouldn't, and Anastasia pressing her about it wouldn't make her want to tell her anything. 

"Hogwarts is certainly one of the best. My mother rather wanted to send me to Beaubatons, but my father really wanted me here. I'm glad about that so far," Anastasia told her. That was revealing a bit more than she wanted, but it didn't say that much. The only thing it really revealed was that her parents wanted to shelter her, which was something that the other girl would have figured out fairly shortly.

Katherine shrugged, "My mom didn't know much about Hogwarts but she knew enough to know she was sending me to a good school." Katherine had heard of Beaubatons before but she wasn't sure where it was or anything like that. She mainly knew that it was a wizarding school somewhere other than Scotland she presumed.
"Like I said, I'm just glad to be here. It's really cool to finally know what was up with me. It explains a lot at least." Katherine sighed and looked at the back of her hands like her life depended on it. she didn't like talking about her past, even the little she knew from it. Sometimes she wished she couldn't talk. When you were writing something down you have time to at least think about it. When you are talking you have to make up your mind right away.
"I guess London is cool. I've been there a few times with my mom to look at Cathedrals and stuff. We had tea and crumpets. I think I like it better at home. Going to town is like stepping into a Disney Princess movie." Going to town back home was a lot like walking around the live action set of Brave^tm. Sometimes Katherine felt like she was the princess and sometimes she felt like she was the bear. Not wanted. An outcast. She had hoped it would be different here.

I guess London is cool. I've been there a few times with my mom to look at Cathedrals and stuff. We had tea and crumpets. I think I like it better at home. Going to town is like stepping into a Disney Princess movie.

"A what princess?" Anastasia asked, arching her eyebrow. She didn't make any sort of reply to the girl's statements about London and tea and crumpets and how she liked it better at home, since she couldn't really think of any response to that. It was rather rude, and while Anastasia didn't think she meant to be rude, it showed a lack of awareness that she found a bit odd. Even if someone said that they were from a dumpster, she wouldn't say that she thought her home was better. She also found the girl's stereotypes about London a bit strange. Even her family, who were quite old fashioned even by wizard standards, didn't have tea and crumpets. Maybe they had daily tea time, but she honestly couldn't remember the last time they'd actually had crumpets. 

She was also confused as to what on Earth a "Disney Princess" was. Obviously, she knew what a Princess was, and she actually knew quite a bit about geography since her mom had drilled it into her when she was four, but she had no idea what a Disney princess was. Maybe it was some weird American thing or something. She hoped the girl would explain because Anastasia hated not knowing. 

Katherine was thinking about watching movies when Ana spoke up.

"A what princess?"

Katherine looked at her before realizing her mistake.
"Sorry, nothing. Just a muggle thing. I'm still getting used to the fact that there are people here who haven't seen any of the Disney movies."
Katherine didn't feel like explaining what Disney was. She didn't really know how to respond to the question anyway. Disney was her childhood.
"So what do you do outside of Hogwarts?"
Katherine wasn't a real fan of small talk but she didn't know what else to say. She wasn't really comfortable around the girl yet. She seemed a little judgemental. And by the way she talked about her parents, Katherine assumed she was a pureblood. Not that she really cared. Katherine mainly just wanted to have some friends. She didn't care if they were Gryffindor or Slytherin or Hufflepuff. She didn't care if they knew everything about magic or if they knew just as little as her. She wanted someone who could help her. Ana seemed to know the ropes too. That way she could probably help her with knowing what to do. She smiled again and she remembered her mom's words. You can never smile too much my love. It shows the beauty within you. Katherine wished she could see that beauty herself. It might make her more confident.

Anastasia nodded, still not totally understanding. Someone she'd encountered had tried to explain what a movie was, but it honestly didn't make any sense at all and she thought the name was silly. After all, whatever on Earth a movie was, there had to be a far better name. She didn't say that to the girl though, since they'd just met and Anastasia still hadn't made up her mind about the girl. 

So what do you do outside of Hogwarts?

She smiled at that question. A shorter answer would be what didn't she do. She danced, she played Quidditch, she sang, she played half a dozen instruments, she wrote, and she sewed. She had some other hobbies as well, but those weren't something she liked to advertise to someone she'd just met. "I dance, play Quidditch, and I do quite a bit of music as well. What about you?" she said. She'd abbreviated her answer mostly because she didn't want to see like a braggart. Her mother said it was quite improper, and anyway, since she'd been at Hogwarts, she'd figured out that people her age really didn't like people talking about how awesome they were, even if it was completely true. Even if she hadn't fully made up her mind about the girl, she didn't want Katherine to dislike her. 

Katherine was intrigued by the number of things Ana said she participated in. It all seemed so interesting. She herself didn't really do much. She had played football when she was younger but it hadn't really stuck with her. Katherine had spent a long time with her mother trying to find something she could do in her free time. She discovered she enjoyed swimming but she had neither the time nor the energy to join a year-round team. Katherine was quite gifted at the piano and she enjoyed playing the flute but nothing else came easily to her even as she struggled to play the guitar.
"I used to play football and I'm pretty good at piano, but I don't do much else."
She thought Ana was pretty cool. She decided to press on.
"Seems like you do a lot is there anything else? Maybe you could help me with my flying skills. I really want to learn how to do some cool tricks," Katherine suggested. Maybe she didn't have to be so tense around her. Relax a bit she told herself. There's no point in stressing yourself out if you don't have to. She smiled for what felt like the millionth time and held out her hand.
"Friends?"