Noticable Notations Follow Up PV

Emika looked at the shelves of books as they walked through them to the table one of the other girls had sped towards and set her stuff at. The Hogwarts library was something she surely would never get tired of, since reading was her absolute favorite pastime. She wondered if they had any books written in Japanese, as she had left her own books at home, and she didn’t want to burden an owl with having her parents send her some of her Japanese books. She hummed very softly as she continued taking in the sight, smell, and feel of the library.

“Coming to the library was a good idea!” Erika said quietly, so she didn’t attract the attention of the librarian. “I love libraries. Reading is my favorite pastime. At home I have hundreds of books, and... oh, sorry. I’m rambling. I don’t think I’ve even introduced myself to you. I’m Emika Brown. Hufflepuff, first year.”

She smiled, wondering if she had said the right thing. She was not the best at knowing what to say in ordinary conversations, especially with people her own age.

“So, um, what are you girls’ names? Seeing as I’ve managed to introduce myself.” She laughed softly.

"I'm Penelope. Nice to meet you!" said Penelope. She said this softly, and extended her hand for a handshake. "So, Hufflepuff? I could've been a Hufflepuff. Both my parents were." Penelope hated herself just then. Why... why would she bring up her parents? The very thought of her parents made her want to cry. "I-I'm sorry. My parents have been gone for some time. Bye gone I mean passed. All I have left is my brother, William." said Penelope. 

She played with her robes nervously. Was it really okay to tell this much to a girl she barely even knew? Her eyes darted around the huge library and she wished she hadn't even brought the subject up. "So.... away from that depressing subject. What is your homework you have to do? All I have left is charms, but I would be happy to review anything." Penelope sat down, leaving plenty of chairs for for the girl Emika to sit in. Maybe she wouldn't want to sit directly next to each other, perhaps she was one of those germaphobes. 

Penelope took out her books, spare pieces of parchment scattering all over the floor. She picked them up and ruefully noticed the Christmas card that she and her family had taken the year before. William wasn't in it, because he was still in Azkaban, but her parents were there. This photo brought tears to her eyes, but she held them in. She picked up the picture and showed it to Emika. "Look, these are my parents. My brother was in Azkaban." said Penelope. 

Sorry it took so long to respond!

“I’m so sorry to hear that.” Emika said, wearing a concerned expression on her face. “Do you have a place to go during the holidays? If you wanted, I can ask my parents if you can come home with me sometime. I’m sure they’d be fine with it, and we have plenty of room.” She smiled as she sat down next to Penelope. “Besides, it would be so much fun to have a friend over during the holidays!”

She took out a piece of paper and a quill. “I don’t have too much homework left. I was mostly looking for a nice space to write. My mom told me before I left that I better not slack off on my Japanese practice while I was at Hogwarts. She wants me to write at least a paragraph in kanji, hiragana, and katakana a day, and two paragraphs on the weekends and in letters home. She’s a real stickler for that.”

She laughed softly as she showed Penelope a few paragraphs that were already written and dated from the past couple days. She rolled her eyes. “I have to send them home to prove I’ve been writing. Once a month.” She looked at her new friend. “Oh, yeah. In case this isn’t making sense, I’m one-fourth Japanese.”

@Emika Brown

Penelope pondered on the thought of staying with Emika, and it did sound fun. But she knew that William had always been sort of a loner, and he did always like time by himself. so she said, "Well, my brother sent me a letter that said he found an apartment, but my room isn't built yet and I would have to sleep on the floor. Actually, it sounds terrible in the apartment. Okay! I would love to, are you sure your parent's are going to be okay with it though?" said Penelope.

Emika pulled out a piece of parchment and a quill.  After telling Penelope about her homework, Penelope said, "Wow, that's a lot of extra stuff. Do you enjoy it?" asked Penelope.

"My whole family is French/irish/scottish. I don't have any Japanese, although if I had to learn another language, I would definitely learn Japanese." said Penelope. She pulled out her charms and flipped to the right page. She pulled out her quill and- oh no! She had forgotten her ink. "Can I-uh-borrow some ink? I guess I forgot it in my dorm." she said awkwardly. She hated asking people for things. Especially if they were her friends. Was Emika her friend? Yes. Penelope untensed and picked up her quill. This was turning out to be quite fun.

“Of course! Help yourself. I always carry plenty of ink. And yes, my parents will probably say yes. I don’t have many friends. They’ll be very pleased I made a friend. I’ll send them an owl later today asking them for permission for you to visit. I should get a reply fairly quickly; we do not live too far from Hogwarts.” Emika said as she handed Penelope an ink bottle.

“I’m terrible at making friends usually. I prefer reading to talking usually. Muggle kids never quite got over the fact I did prefer books to interacting to them. I decided when I got my Hogwarts letter I would attempt to talk to more people, otherwise I’d be utterly lonely. Probably hiding in here during all my free time.” She laughed quietly, and smiled. “I was so happy when I got my letter. I was scared I’d have to go to a Muggle school. Hogwarts is so amazing, isn’t it?” The entire time she spoke, her hand was flying across the paper, writing Japanese characters in the various styles of characters. “The Great Hall’s ceiling is so beautiful. I wonder what spells went into it.” She stopped suddenly. “Oh my. I’m rambling, aren’t I? Feel free to tell me to shut up any time I start rambling. It’s a bad habit of mine.”

"I keep my nose stuck in a book, too. I had one best friend back where I used to live, and that was it. She was pure-blood, too, but she has anxiety and didn't want to move away from her parents. We read all the same books, and sometimes we would race. I try to make new friends too, so far I've met two Slytherins, and that's about it. I've seen other people here and there. Now I'm rambling. I must admit, it's nice to have someone to ramble with." said Penelope. 

She watched Emika scribble the Japanese on paper, and it was mezmerizing. She dipped her quill into the ink and began writing her essay. Once she was done (It was a lot easier than she thought) she said, "So, your Japanese, have you ever been to Japan? I've always wanted to go, but my dad never got a chance to travel there before he died." she sniffed a little. "But, it's alright. He brought me to Salem though. We learned all about the witch burnings. I think the worst thing about them was that they didn't burn wizards too. What's up with that?" she said jokingly. She was glad she finished her charms, and was even happier that she could make such a great friend.

“I have been to Japan. My grandparents live there. And the reason they didn’t burn wizards is that they called male witches ‘warlocks’ during the Salem Witch Trials. But there were very few men convicted of being magical at that time. Women were thought to be more easily coerced into signing the devil’s book, so they accused women more. It was quite a terrible time for the citizens of Salem. People were very overly religious and fearful of magic, believing it was the devil’s power. They thought people wrote their names in blood in the devil’s book to gain magical power. I’m certain that generation was out of their minds! Signing with the devil? Heaven help us if there is a modern day witch trial.” Emika made an off-with-your-head motion across her throat and stuck her tongue out to pretend she was dead. She dropped the silly face and smiled.

“Japan is really beautiful. I have some pictures from when I visited my grandparents in Japan last summer. Would you like to see them?” Emika offered. “I have them in a photo book with me if you want to see the pictures.” She took out a small, thin photo book and offered it to Penelope.

I studied this just a month or two ago. Funny it comes up now!

Penelope looked through the picture book. All of the pictures were beautiful, and Penelope knew for sure that she wanted to go there someday. She thought about how wonderful that would be, and suddenly realized that that was what she wanted to do! She wanted to travel the world, to write stories, to tell stories! She wanted to write a newspaper! She was excited at the thought, and said, "So, let's hold off on doing homework, shall we? It's a little dull, perhaps we could talk about something else instead. So, is it just me, or is it kind of weird that Florean Fortescue's is still named after the original owner? He got dragged off bye death eaters, so it is a little strange that everyday people say his name? What do you think?" she asked. She was practicing being a reporter.

This was a question that had been bother ing Penelope for months, but now she finally had the sudden urge to ask. She scratched her head a little too enthusiastically, and then slowly lowered her hand, flushing. She had suddenly become very happy, and she hadn't the slightest idea why. She pulled her hair into a ponytail, a sign she was going to have some fun. She smiled.

“Why is that weird?” Emika said. “It honors him, in a way. He was dragged off, not turned into a new ‘You-Know-Who.’” She made air quotes as she spoke. “Most shops keep their original names even long after the original owner is dead. I really don’t think much about that at all.” She shrugged slightly. “Why do you ask?” She tilted her head. “I mean, lots of people don’t know that he was taken by Death Eaters, so it wouldn’t be weird for them.” She reasoned as she put away her photo book and Japanese practice. “But that is an interesting question.” She nodded. “Here’s a question for you. I know it’s kind of silly since we are only in first year. Are you excited for Third Year when we can go to Hogsmead?”
Emika smiled. She had heard about Hogmead trips from her older cousins who had attended Hogwarts when they were her age, all graduated now and out in the world, the youngest being twenty two years old. She was by far the youngest in her family, although she had a suspicion her parents were planning on having a second kid. She smiled. It might be nice to have a sibling.