PV From One Misfit to Another

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Over the years, Althea had thought she had grown more in-tune and observant of her surroundings. The years have refined her eye for details, polishing her senses and welding it into a meticulous wariness that has served her well in regaining her footing in social settings. Yet, she had come to accept that there were days that were clear exceptions to this — days when her mind becomes clouded with haze proving themselves damning, characterised with cotton fluff that dulls her touch like a poorly-treated blade. Days like today, because through miraculous carelessness, her mind failed to comprehend the thunderous and reckless steps that approached from the other end of the secluded hallway like a typhoon. Steps that she had missed, until a grumbling and peevish voice called out to her in her awkward staring by the window.

"Oi!! What's the matter with ye?"

The voice slashed a jagged line through the static by her ears, yanking her consciousness by the neck back into full resolution with all her senses feeling as if an ice-cold bucket of water had been pitched over her head. Althea swivelled her head towards the voice, tensing her shoulders when the sight of a frowning boy that was almost a ruler's length away from matching her height. His scowl was framed by an uncanny layer of baby fat that clung to his cheeks, and the strangely ill-fitted school robes hanging awkwardly over his frame were yanked by his fists shoved haphazardly in the pockets. From the sunflower yellow woven into his tie and collar, he was evidently a fellow Hufflepuff — an underclassman, at that. That was when awareness kicked in.

She could only imagine how peculiar and unusual she must seem, gazing aimlessly outside a rain-stained and cobweb-strung window pane like a madman. Althea felt a coil of embarrassment twist in her stomach, but her face remained blank with that cautious, instinctive smile at her lips. She had never been one to expose and share her shame — No, she was practiced in the art of avoidance and diversion.

"Exercising my given right to stare out at the incredible Hogwarts scenery. What is a child doing looking as if a typhoon swept him by in an isolated school hallway without your friends?" Althea winced subtly at the unintended snark of her reply. Whatever friends she had left upon her return to Hogwarts have been indulging her old spark of sarcasm, but setting it off on a random junior from her house? Oh dear.

That GIF made me laugh out loud.
@Keegan Cadwalader

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Althea had no idea what she had expected after acting snarky and sarcastic at a child probably four or five years her junior. She had always been a bit too quick with her quips, no doubt as a result of her upbringing being close to her maternal side and the childhood friends she had surrounded herself with.

Lifting her hand off the window, Althea turned to face the boy fully, contemplating how to apologise without worsening the situation when the boy stepped closer on his own with a surprising ferocity, crossing his arms and yelling with a voice unusually gruff for its pitch. She registered a wave of bewilderment, but also found herself impressed by the notion that his insult struck a chord despite only having known her for more than a minute. “Friends” is a very precarious word, encompassed with far too many things to worry about for a day such as this, and this lanky kid had almost immediately struck down where it hurt. She hadn't had this much pushback from anyone but a select few after people solidified her reputation to be in a now perpetual state of pity.

A faint chuckle escaped her momentarily at that thought, though she tried to refrain when she saw how the brunet boy began fidgeting with the loose hairs on the base of his neck as his temper fizzled out. She briefly met those expectant blue eyes, wondering how she should answer before the boy burst from the unease that practically wanted to jump out of his skin from his increasing fidgeting. She recognised that sinking feeling of anxiety well. That slow lulling of that exhilarating fire and thrill whenever a witty quip leaves and lands on sight, and she would be met with the expression of someone who she had unknowingly hurt, instead of making a light-hearted moment for the scrapbooks.

Althea’s hesitation was halted and swept away when the younger boy puffed his cheeks like a chided, soaked cat and offered the reluctant start of an apology. She winced, mentally chiding herself for her foggy thoughts and turtle-paced reaction speed.

“For a lanky one, your bite sure is worth your weight tenfold. Hufflepuffs usually don’t have the sharpest of tongues,” She returned a humorous remark of her own, in hopes of setting the brunet at ease. Fighting fire with fire usually worked, after all.

Althea turned to face him properly, reaching out a hand to the younger boy, “No “sorry” needed, it’s not like I have many friends to be offended for anyway.” She hoped that the effort she put into offering that slight smile her lips formed helped to enhance her sincerity where her voice lacked.

“Althea Valeden. We’re housemates, but I’m too old for any inter-house social politics.”

@Keegan Cadwalader

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It was not often that Althea reached out to people on her own volition these days, but nowadays, she found herself strung into unpredictable situations involving the newest batch of first-years. Perhaps it was their infectious energy and optimism that made her so unexpectedly fond of them, or in the case of the brunet boy standing in front of her, it was the uncertainty of a child freshly stripped from home and into a foreign place that she once felt so vividly. Keegan, her mind processed the name as the boy's suddenly quietened voice introduced himself in lieu of a stiff smile that spoke clearly of the tension and unease in him.

Althea glanced around her surroundings properly when Keegan began opening up about why he hung around this part of the campus often. Glancing over the isolated yet peaceful corridor and the admittedly picturesque view that she had failed to truly appreciate earlier, she could see what the boy meant. Not many people came here, and she sure didn't know about it before accidentally stumbling upon what appeared to be the brunet's "hideout" in Hogwarts. She tilted her head slightly at the mention of Gryffindors as being part of his reason for hiding away in this part of the school. From the irritated tone in which Keegan referred to them, these Gryffindors clearly appeared to cause him much torment if the frantic sprint down the corridor earlier added any testimony to the case. "Do they bother you? These... Gryffindors," Althea's question slipped out before she could convince herself to let it go, her curiosity and concern mixing into a dangerous concoction within her. She knew what it felt like to dodge and run particularly troublesome people, away from the names that rang in her ears and clung to her existence like a leech. Not to mention how it seemed that Keegan had enough to deal with without those Gryffindor students he mentioned with such negative regard.

Althea's eyes fell to trail after the small rock that Keegan kicked away in his fidgeting, though she looked up at him again in time to see his uneasy stance that made his tall frame cave inwards. She found herself only mildly surprised that he was in the first year. Though his height was deceptive, his features and demeanour still held onto a distinct boyish nature that gave his age away. "You'll grow to scare away those lions soon enough. Even the most hopeless of social cases get adopted into circles around here," Althea tried to reassure him, faintly smiling as she recalled her own meagre but fond experiences with her friends in her early years at Hogwarts. After all, there was little else that made school bearable for her other than the few friendships she formed as a child.

The question about herself made her startle, unexpectedly loaded with an answer that Althea tried not to confront or ponder if she had the opportunity. For a moment, her ego felt the threat of a massive bruise when imagining herself admitting the whole truth to answer that question. What could she truly say that would not sound pathetic? That she had to drop out of her fourth year and took a three-year hiatus because of an accident that affected her psyche more than the actual victims themselves? Or that she no longer had enough friends to fill up even a palm?

"Nothing that you should aspire to be, sadly. I'm studying fourth year, though I'm technically seventeen this year," Althea kept her tone light, trying to scrape the surface without breaking the thin ice between that and the full truth. She tried to maintain the small but friendly smile on her face, settling on the idea that Keegan was probably just curious despite how he appeared to be. She added with a shrug, "Life happened, and that's how it'll be, I suppose."

@Keegan Cadwalader