Newbies PV J. Lester Closed

"Let's see..." Jessica mumbled to herself. The owlery was in the... west tower? Or was it the east tower? She was certain it wasn't the north tower... right? So did that mean she had to cross the grounds from where she was now? For that matter where was she now?

Jessica's first mistake, she realised, had been trying to use the portraits as markers to know where she was the labyrinth that was Hogwarts. It worked sometimes. But only so long as the figures in the portraits stayed within their frames.

The Slytherin student groaned as she realised she'd taken the wrong direction and cast a glare at the portrait in front of her. "I thought you were supposed to be near the muggle studies classroom."

The man in the picture, a noble of some kind dressed in ruffled Elizabethan clothing shrugged then strolled off the side of the picture frame without another word.

"Rude!" Jessica called out after him. Maybe there was some curse she'd learn later to effect figures in portraits. She should make a note now to remember this encounter for when she did learn oh then he'd be sorry...

With a snort of frustration, the small girl turned to leave when another person slammed into her sideways. Jessica staggered. Initially she was too surprised to say anything but once that gave way, her frustration surfaced. "You... watch it!" She hissed at the figure, a Gryffindor girl. No wonder her head was in the clouds.

"Sorry! That's my bad."

"Yes it was." The first year responded drily. She remained motionless as the girl made to dust off her robes, only following the Gryffindor's movement with her eyes.

Next the girl had introduced herself, one Maggie Parker. Seemed apologetic enough at least. They may be an airhead but at least they weren't intentionally rude. Like some portraits. For a moment Jessica didn't say anything. She looked to Maggie's hand. Then to her face. Back to her hand. Then to her face again before finally accepting the older girl's offer.

"Jessica Lester of House Lapis," she made certain to enunciate the last part. "Apology accepted but you should be more cautious in the future. You're lucky I'm forgiving." The Slytherin girl was about to turn her back when she remembered something. Reaching inside her robe, she felt the parchment of the letter she had written for her parents. She needed to send it but couldn't remember where the blasted Owlery was.

She could ask someone else but Maggie at least seemed a nice enough sort. It would just take swallowing some pride to ask directions from someone she'd just considered an airhead. "Hey, um, Maggie?" Jessica asked a little sheepishly, the wind taken from her sails. "I have this letter to post. Where is the Owlery again?"

Maggie felt her temper flare as the small girl hissed at her, her lip curled, “You... watch it!”. Maggie couldn’t help but grin slightly, the girl reminded her of her mean old neighbor, Mrs. Dorris. The old lady was a complete grouch and had been living in the apartment next to the Parkers’, and she never failed to loose an opportunity to yell at Maggie or any one of her seven siblings, though Nancy or Cooper would never upset her.

Maggie apologized, despite the seed of distaste for the girl growing in her stomach. She hoped she’d be a bit nicer after she apologized, but the girl continued to disappoint as she replied, her voice monotonous and dry,

“Yes, it was.” Maggie couldn’t tell if she was trying to be funny or not, but from what she knew of the girl so far, she wasn’t really the type for well, laughing. Maggie rolled her eyes, this kid was really getting her panties in a twist over this, wasn’t she? The snobbish look on her face as she observed the girl only made Maggie’s anger fester, but she did her best to not yell at the girl.

Maggie couldn’t help but feel proud of herself as she held her hand, she was actually doing pretty well controlling her temper here. The girl, however, was either extremely pissed by the fact that she had been run into, or being a brat was just a personality trait of hers. She looked to Maggie’s hand, then to her face, and repeated the process once more before gingerly accepting her offer. Maggie wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d taken out some hand sanitizer before shaking it, but the girl just introduced herself as she quickly retracted her hand, absently wiping it on her robes.

“Jessica Lester of House Lapis.” she said, putting an emphasis on House Lapis like Maggie was supposed to know what it was. "Apology accepted but you should be more cautious in the future. You're lucky I'm forgiving." A bad taste made its way into Maggie’s mouth as the girl said this, and she decided that she did not like “Jessica Lester of House Lapis”. Maggie raised her eyebrow at her, this kid really had a stick up her ass, didn’t she?

“Oh, yeah.” she said, sarcasm heavy in her voice. “Thank god I didn’t piss off Jessica Lester from House Lapis.” she glared once again at her as she spoke, a frown etched onto her face. What was it with her running into bitchy first years lately?

She hated how this girl acted like she was better than her— what was she, the Queen of England? Sure acted like it, that’s for sure. The girl’s tone, however, seemed to do a one-eighty as she almost sheepishly asked where the Owlery was. Maggie scoffed, this kid really had some nerve, didn’t she? Maggie had to admire the fact that she could insult a second-year Gryffindor one second and ask the same girl for help a few moments later. Maggie sighed, remembering when she was a confused first-year last year, and how she’d stopped a student and asked him where the Owlery was so she could mail a dungbomb to her older brother Jason. Sympathy threatened to take over all of Maggie’s logic, but she glared as she realized what the kid was doing. Geez, they’d only met a few minutes ago, and Lester was already trying to manipulate her? Maggie, who could proudly boast to knowing the entire school inside-out, simply shrugged her shoulders, looking at the girl with a smirk.

“No clue.” she said, very obviously lying. The outline of a letter was visible in her robe’s pockets, and a slightly-evil, shit-eating grin took over her face as she brushed past the girl, turning around to walk backwards as she called to her,

“Nice meeting you, Jessica Lester of House Lapdog.” she snickered, turning back around as she ambled down the corridor, disappearing behind the statue of the one-eyed witch and out of sight. She had some things to do in Hogsmeade that could not wait, especially not another year.

Jessica blinked. The tone of the conversation had shifted rapidly. Was it something she'd said?

No. The Gryffindor girl was just temperamental. That had to be it. On her part Jessica had graciously accepted an apology for the older girl's clumsiness but somehow the warmth had totally drained from the other girl.

People were strange creatures.

Regardless, she remained hopeful as she procured the letter from her robes and was about to explain who it was for. Perhaps she could even impress the girl with her superior penmanship. But the response which came was unexpected.

She didn't know?

Jessica was stunned into silence again. Maybe she was a bigger airhead than she thought.

Or much more likely, going by her change in demeanour and suspiciously letter shaped bulge, she was lying. The Slytherin girl's eyes narrowed. Was this some sort of prank?

She was about to speak again and call Maggie out when she brushed past and took off, calling an insult back at her. An insult on her family name, no less. Scrunching her fists into balls, she offered no final remarks as the older girl disappeared around the corner leaving her seething. Another one for the curse list then.

• Maggie Parker

• Elizabethan Portrait Man

Hopefully that list wouldn't get too much longer. She'd barely even started at Hogwarts and already her list of enemies was outnumbering her list of friends. The magical world was just as full of jerks as the muggle world, that was a disappointment.

Well... she still had a letter to post. The first year supposed that she'd have to ask the next person she saw instead and wandered rather aimlessly in the direction opposite to where Maggie had gone, not wanting to deal with the chances of running into her again so soon.