An Unexpected Sorting pv Ava Winchect

Ava eyed the open spot beside her with barely concealed contempt, tempted to swing her leg over the seat to prevent any meddling first year from stealing the place beside her. She was perfectly content to stew in her own feelings, her lack of festivity despite the excitement a new year at Hogwarts brought. Every year she tried to discover her true identity, and every year she ended up in the same loop. This year brought new worries, and with the added choices in classes, she realized that her peers had already set themselves on the path of careers. Meanwhile, her only pleasure was received from her childish pranks.

She wasn’t so lucky. A first year’s name was called, a girl, who came to sit beside Ava. She said nothing, watching the girl out of the corner of her eye. The girl seemed as glum—no, maybe more glum than Ava herself. As the final names were called and everyone took their seats, a feast appeared upon the table. Rather than be delighted by the display of music, the girl heaved a sigh and began to sadly scoop food onto her plate.

As Ava filled her own plate, she mentally readied herself to make conversation with the girl. She had the nagging suspicion that the girl’s mood was directly linked to the results of her sorting, and the only other thing Ava took pleasure in was pride for her house.

"Not excited to be in the house of the serpents?" Ava asked, tilting her head to study the younger girl. "I’m Ava, thir—fourth year."

She caught herself, correcting the slip up as she realized she was truly a fourth year now. "Whatever you hear about me, it’s probably true."

Ava smirked, thinking of the stories she had heard of her pranks, and most often her debacle during her first year. That story had truly grown behind its origins.

@Geneva Bishop

It took Geneva a minute to realize that the older girl was talking to her. She glanced at the girl- who introduced herself as Ava- before turning back to her food.

"Not excited to be in the house of the serpents?" Geneva detected something behind that comment- was it contempt? Did this girl think she should be excited to be sitting here? Furrowing her brow slightly, without looking at Ava, she responded, “Why would I be?”

She didn’t know how her snark would be interpreted- and the first evening at school certainly wasn’t a good time to make enemies- but at this point she hardly cared. Was she overreacting? Perhaps. But she’d be stuck in this house, with its terrible reputation, for seven years, and she felt she had the right to be sullen about it.

So, the girl was a fourth year. Apart from Geneva’s current discontent, she had to admit to herself that it’d be good to make friends with the older students- they had all the experience, all of the helpful knowledge that you couldn’t find in books. Perhaps she ought to lighten her mood a bit.

The girl- Ava- added an odd statement. "Whatever you hear about me, it’s probably true." Genuine curiosity broke through Geneva’s mood for a moment. “What exactly do you expect me to hear?” So, this girl had a past… or else she was too bigheaded for her own good, and assumed people were talking about her. It was really too early to tell, but still, Geneva was intrigued. She resolved to learn more.

Ava’s stared oddly at the girl’s reply, tapping her finger against her lip. Ava didn’t remember being thrilled about the house, as she had wanted hufflepuff, but she hadn’t been this glum, had she? Yearning for another house was one thing, but disliking your own house was completely another. Ava sighed and allowed the conversation to roll forward, certain they would revisit that particular subject soon.

The younger girl’s question made Ava’s lips curl into a grin, and she was unable to hide her delight. "That’s for me to know, and you to find out."

The vague answer was partially to maintain her mysterious front, and partially to restrict her from revisiting the past for too long. She could joke about it, but the memories were truly too much. It was a shame that every large event within the school usually led to her recollection of them. A strange coincidence.

As she finally lifted her fork and speared one of the pieces of veggies, she never allowed herself to gaze to wander from the younger girl. As she slowly chewed, part of this girl reminded her of the younger sister she should’ve had, rather than the spoiled prying step-sister she had ended up with.

Swallowing, Ava set the fork back onto the table with a gentle clink and resumed conversation. "There’s so many reasons to be a proud Slytherin. We are the best house."

"You’ll see after dinner, but our common room is spectacular. Once in a while, you’ll catch the giant squid swimming past our window and everything will get dark for a moment while it swims by." She gestured grandly with her hands, raising them in the air and moving them around as if to represent the large windows that peered into the lake’s depths. If only there were wizarding actresses.

"Our house has the best sports—which you should join, by the way. I’m partial to broom racing and quidditch, but duelling is alright. Broom sports are more fun." Ava explained this all slowly, growing more excited as she looked forward to flying with her mates, @Colin McCoire and @Emily Shephard. She hoped they had stayed sharp over the summer, especially Em. She wouldn’t be going easy on them, although she had the lingering suspicion that there was something more going on between them. They had gotten extraordinarily close.

Ava slung an arm around the younger girl’s shoulders. "You’ll have to meet some of my friends, ooh, and go to Hogsmeade with us!"

Did she have many friends? Not really. Did Hogsmeade allow first years? Not at all. But Ava did love trouble.

@Geneva Bishop

Ava’s grin, followed by her vague, teasing response, ignited something in Geneva. She knew this feeling. She couldn’t stand information withheld. “You’ll find out when you’re older, you’ll find out soon enough, that’s for you to find out,” these phrases always brought out her fiery side. Yes, she would find out, and it was likely to be sooner and more in depth than this Ava anticipated. Already in her mind she began to plan. Then she turned and saw the other girl staring at her. She brushed it off and looked back at her food. Suddenly, it disappeared and delicious puddings appeared. Geneva tucked into an apple crumble.

Ava began to give her pitch for Slytherin. Having decided that she didn’t want to upset this girl, Geneva kept silent, thinking. True, the common room did sound interesting, but she’d been so looking forward to the riddles and bookshelves of Ravenclaw tower. But since those luxuries were forever barred from her, she supposed she’d have to be happy with what she had.

"Our house has the best sports—which you should join, by the way. I’m partial to broom racing and quidditch, but duelling is alright. Broom sports are more fun." Quidditch? Geneva could deduce what she meant by “broom racing”- even muggles knew that witches flew on broomsticks- but she was lost as to what “Quidditch” meant. Had she misheard her? When Ava had finished, Geneva asked eagerly “Did you say ‘quidditch?’ What on earth is that?”

Ava slung her arm around Geneva’s shoulder. She flinched somewhat at the unexpected contact. After a few seconds, she wriggled away. She didn’t want to seem hostile, but there was such a thing as personal space.

Hearing Ava mention Hogsmeade, Geneva grinned. She had come prepared for that. Ducking down under the table, she retrieved a small slip of paper she had bought at Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes and set it on the table. “I suppose I’ll be needing this?” she asked innocently. She couldn’t wait to see the look on Ava’s face.

As the dinner food cleared and dessert occupied the table, she saw a sort of fire light within the girl, determination or maybe annoyance in response to her vague answer. As Ava sat, she realized it was almost eerily similar to herself. What were the chances of that?

"Another great question," Ava grinned, wishing she had her new broom to proudly show along with her explanation. "Quidditch is sort of like muggle football, except the goals are in the air, you fly around on brooms, and there’s a high chance you might get knocked out."

"Also, there’s the snitch which is worth a load of points. Usually whoever catches that wins, but there are other cases."

Ava nodded with finality, helping herself to the same apple crumble that the girl was eating.

Through a mouthful of apple, she added "Slytherin used to have a bad streak in broom racing, but we just recently won a race which means we’re not cursed! The party afterward was one for the books."

Although the thought of parties made her recall one thrown by a younger year, and that was one of the worst parties in ages. The hallucinations… Ava turned her head away from Geneva for a moment, hiding her expression and catching @Colin McCoire a few spots down on from her, staring toward the Hufflepuff table with something unreadable with his gaze. She was certainly right, he must have had feelings for Em.

When she turned back and slung her arm around the younger girl, the young snake wriggled out of her grasp, pulling away slightly.

Not all for bad, though. As the girl assumed an innocent facade, she pulled out a permission slip, clearly fake, from out of her pocket. However she procured it was none of Ava’s business, but she smirked all the same, again getting the same sense that this girl truly was a younger extension of herself.

"We’ll have to go soon, before any of the prefects are out on the look for trouble makers. That’s usually more toward the middle of the year, I think." Of course, the second years would likely be also trying to sneak in, but it would be some time before the first years wrapped their minds around the idea of getting in.

@Geneva Bishop

Quidditch. Odd name, but it sounded interesting. Geneva had never been one for team sports, but maybe in the wizarding world she could turn over a new leaf. Still, her small build probably wasn’t quite right for a sport where you were likely to be knocked out.

Geneva had one sport- ballet. Gliding across the floor, Geneva could lose herself. Yes, it was hard work- and it was how she’d built up her strong leg muscles- but the intense focus somehow brought a relief, a detachment. Her focus was centered on stretching and straightening every single aspect of her body, moving them fluidly, and there was no room for any other thought.

Ava’s smirk was a satisfactory reaction to Geneva’s show of mischief, although not quite the look of surprise she’d expected. A thought occurred to Geneva; this girl was probably no stranger to breaking the rules. This was confirmed somewhat when Ava spoke of when the prefects were most likely to catch trouble-makers. That seemed like a tidbit of information that would only come from experience.

Abruptly, students began to stand as the food on the tables disappeared. They had talked dinner away. Suddenly Geneva realized- she hadn’t given this girl her name. She quickly added “My name’s Geneva. Call me Gen, or Eva, or just Geneva, I really don’t care.” Prefects were calling for first years now, and in the sea of students, Geneva lost sight of Ava’s face. That didn’t bother her, though. She was sure she’d be seeing her again.

"Geneva," she repeated softly, tilting her head to one side and once again spotting Colin.

As the food cleared away from the table, Ava turned, about to exchange some farewells before being swept off to the common dorm room, but found that the girl was already gone. The crowd swelled and then dissipated as quickly as it had come, students dispersing to their respective houses as prefects wrangled the new students toward it.

Gone, but not forever. Ava had the suspicion that it would not be the last she saw of the girl, but rather the beginning of a friendship accompanied by mischief and this strange sense of responsibility Ava felt toward Geneva. She had never expected to step into such a role, but perhaps the start of a new school year similarly meant the start of something new.

Waiting for the bulk of the crowd to disappear, Ava finally stood, peering out to see who she still recognized. Spotting no one, she tucked a hand into the pockets of her robe, and turning to glance one final time out toward the dining hall, felt an odd warmth in her chest before finally walking away, toward the common room: her home away from home.

@Geneva Bishop
Ava has exited the thread.