The Gilded Margin PV Rosaline

Graci looked up as she heard the rain begin. Ah, it seems my wishes have been granted after all. Such a lovely coincidence. Directly after she looked to the door, the bell had rung, and started over to the drenched girl.

"Of course, follow me. It is always the worst to have impromptu rain showers catch you off guard. I live right upstairs, and we have some towels up there."

Graci started up the back stairs to their flat, waving at her dad, pointing behind her and hoping he got the memo. Ah, the good old hand gesture communication. Usually never works, but hey, it is what it is.

Once in the entryway Graci turned to the other girl. "You can stay here or follow me, the cupboard is just in the hall. What's your name, by the way?"

She went to the hallway cupboard, opening it and looking for some stray towels. Her mum was out running some errands, and dad was downstairs, so there was no one to question her thought process of bringing a complete stranger into the house. Not her most brilliant idea, but she was simply a kind soul with the inability to refuse giving someone a towel when they were dripping wet.

After digging through the recesses of the cupboard, she found a neatly folded towel. Perfect. I mean, a towel is a towel, but the folding job is wonderful to still be intact so far back in there.

Graci walked back toward the entryway—well, the kitchen really—and handed off the towel, suddenly unsure what to do next. Offer her some tea? I think we still have some warm yet from earlier. Would that sound odd? Tacky? Who knew being hospitable could be so... difficult.

Graci was shocked at Rosaline's question, not because she was confused, but because she was in her Muggle brain, not having to think about magic.

"Oh, uhm, yes, actually, do you go there as well?" She didn't know the protocol for situations such as these, but she figured if Rosaline knew about the school she wasn't a Muggle. And if she was... well, Graci wasn't above being weird, or exaggerating it.

Graci thought on what would've given it away. She hadn't talked about it, in fact, Graci hadn't said much of anything all day. I mean, you can't hide what you are forever. Someone is bound to notice eventually. Be it the unassuming book that might have accidentally been shelved from my trunk. Or... oh gosh, did I seriously leave my wand in my hair. The daily prophet on the counter doesn't help either.

Just then she felt like slamming her head against the wall, it was far too obvious, but luckily no one would really piece it together unless they were a wizard/witch. Magic adjacent, at least.

"What gave it away?" She was genuinely curious as to what had tipped her off. Specifics. or the thing that made it glaringly obvious to her.

Graci had always liked trying to understand how people's brains worked. What made them curious, or what made them tick. What did they want most in the world?

Graci was just a little surprised, but she rebounded quickly, glad that Rosaline was in fact a witch. Otherwise it would have been awkward. Well, the conversations wouldn't have even happened, so it'd be useless worrying.

"Oh, it's fine, I was just a little surprised, that's all. You see, I don't normally meet other magical folk outside of school or family either." Graci was great fun for the new experience, saving her from another mundane day. She had those in plenty. Ish.

"Well, we do have a lot of books that are interesting aside from some of my school books. it must have gotten mixed up with some new books. I'll have to get that off the shelves before someone tries to buy it." Graci had noticed Rosaline's glance at her hair, but she was already glaringly aware of her wand in there.

Graci pulled her wand out, "I think it also doesn't help that I have a stick in my hair. Technically it's just my wand, but to muggles it is just a stick. Then again, they've seen weirder things around here."

Weirder things were probably seen on a daily basis for most of her neighbours. Not that she had many. But she did need to be more careful regardless of that. Hm. Maybe I'll have to start a fake class with myself. 'How to be less obvious 101 {for dummies}'.

Graci was glad conversation was beginning to flow a bit more, awkward silences made her uncomfortable. She had been trying to fix that of late, but it wasn't working all that well, just resulting in her making it even more awkward for the few people she did have to talk to.

"I'm going to be a second year in September, and I'm excited for Care of Magical Creatures, too, but my favourite class is Charms. They're all really fun though."

It was true, and September couldn't come fast enough. Or summer camp, but that was a whole other plethora of excitement and anticipation that would make her seem excessively hyper.

"It's really no problem, I'm just glad you didn't think I was trying to kidnap you or something. Not that I would. I actually don't think I'd be capable of doing that. I'd feel bad and then it would just be unsuccessful as a whole. Sorry if I just made it awkward. And you totally can look around, books are something we have in abundance here."

Sometimes when she went on long tangents she wanted to bash her head into a wall, just to escape the sheer mortification of having to take the longest breath of her life at the end.

"Convenient indeed. Ish. And you're completely right with that, but better safe than sorry for things like that. I'm pretty sure if I even entertained that idea my dad would think I'd gone mad."