Conversation is a Kind of Art PV Willow A. Cl.

In rare form, Elspeth was excited. While she'd normally not be one to be giddy or peppy, today she woke up with a smile on her face. It was Saturday, there were no classes, the weather was beautiful, and she had a plan to meet up with someone to work on her art. Since arriving, Elspeth had practiced her art in private, not revealing her hobby to others out of a kind of nervousness of being found out. They'd know she wasn't actually an artist or especially talented and then she'd be too anxious to draw again. It was best that this stayed her private past time.

That is, until she saw a flier hanging up in the halls on her way to Charms class. Someone was looking for a model to practice drawing. Naturally, Elspeth's eyes had flicked over it immediately - she was no model. She didn't like acknowledging that other people could see her at all, let alone immortalize her likeness on canvas. But the second or third time she'd past it she noticed a small line she hadn't read the first time around: the artist was a Hufflepuff first year named Willow Anderson. Elspeth had seen Willow around the school throughout the year. She'd always seemed the sweet and gentle type, unlike so many chaos rat babies she'd regularly worked to shield herself from. Plus, she'd heard that Willow was a good artist, and, wanting to improve on her own art skills for her naturalist journal, Elspeth thought this might be a chance to find a drawing buddy.

So she'd overcome her usual nerves to have a shot at finding someone who shares some interests with her. After some of the stuff she'd been through this year, this didn't seem nearly as insurmountable a task. The modeling part would be awkward, but she knew that she'd at least get through it okay. As she looked in her closet she hesitated for a moment, unsure of what a proper model would wear. It didn't entirely matter, as most of her clothing was fairly uniform. Just her school uniforms and then a collection of t shirts and jeans. She grabbed a shirt with thin, horizontal black and white stripes. This might be a fun pattern to try and draw. Once her pants and sneakers were on, she made sure to pack her pencils and watercolors into her bag and then headed down the stairs to the grounds.

Clutching the owl that Willow had sent in response to her answering the flier, Elspeth walked through the main door to Hogwarts and looked around. The note asked her to meet Willow near the stone circle over by the lake. Despite Elspeth's many adventures around the school she hadn't yet ventured much around the lake itself, having spent more of her time looking through the forested and grassy areas for critters throughout the year. More students tended to hang out around the lake, and she'd always been worried about interrupting someone's activity.

From up on top of the hill, though, she was able to see down by the shore that there was a large stone circle in the water. She made her way down the path, almost running without thinking about it she was so amped up on her own excitement. Practically hopping the final step down to where the path evened out, she suddenly felt very different. Maybe it was the physical jolt of her feet or making it to the final leg of her journey and knowing she'd see Willow soon, but Elspeth was feeling those telltale pangs of electricity running down her arm again that told her she was nervous.

Her brain snapped immediately to, You should go back up to your dorm. You don't feel good. Write her a letter. Apologize. Say you got the dates mixed up! If she responds, you don't have to. If she ever asks you can just say that you didn't get the letter, must have gotten mixed up in the Owlery. She won't notice. Not that she'd ask you anyways. Her heart sank. Maybe Willow had accepted her response because Willow didn't know who she was. As soon as Elspeth rounded the corner maybe Willow would take one look at her and decide that she wasn't good enough to be a model. How horrible and embarrassing would that be.

She held one of her wrists in her hands, massaging the inside of it with her thumb. Her pulse was quick, but the gentle massaging helped a tiny bit. At least she knew her heart was beating. She was here. There wasn't going to be something that would hurt her around the corner. There was no reason to turn another person down. I can't spend all my time being sad that I don't have a friend and then turn down every chance I have to meet someone... Part of her was worried that she might be late for her meeting, but she knew that she needed to take a moment here to collect herself. Some students passed by her, but no one seemed to notice her. They were all involved in their own conversations, and she was just standing there looking uninteresting.

Big breath in. You're going to be okay. She wanted to be an artist. This would be fun! A great chance to learn. One foot at a time she began to walk down the path to the shore of the lake. As she came out from between two large hills, it seemed to open up like a vast mirror. Maybe it was because most of her time looking at the lake had been spent up in the Ravenclaw Tower, but this was the first time Elspeth was realizing just how large it was. It seemed to stretch out forever in any direction, almost like an ocean. The wind felt different here, too. It wasn't as violent as up in the towers, but it was still strong - with no trees to block it she felt pushed gently, as the waves on top were. Sound carried differently here too. She couldn't make out what anyone was saying far away, but she could hear the echoes of their activities.

Elspeth turned right, after noticing that she'd been standing and staring for a moment, lost in her observation. The stone circle wasn't more than fifty feet away. She could see the tops of some of the stones sticking up out of the water from there. As she got closer, it became clearer that the stones, while above wave level, weren't out of the water enough for her to sit on. Willow must have meant to meet her near the circle, but not actually in it? There was a dock with a table on it nearby. The waves gently patted on the side as they hit, a quiet rhythm, like listening to it's heartbeat.

She put her bag on the table and then walked over to the shore to see if she could get a better look at the circle itself. It was made up of a couple dozen rocks, maybe no taller than 3' each. The water was shallow, and in clearer patches you could see the whole of the rocks go down and sink into the muck. In the center was a stone stack. It almost looked like a little person. She squinted and tilted her head to the side. A little squat stone person watching over the ring. Hm. I wonder what this could all be. Things at Hogwarts were so rarely just what they seemed. By this point she expected every statue to hop about and have an involved back story involving some Edwardian governess. The stone circle didn't appear to be moving, talking, breathing, or anything else.

Okay.... I'll trust you - for now. The shore was a pebbly one, not more than a couple feet deep at it's widest part. Although the table and dock were nearby, she found herself a large rock to sit on. It was a nice day and the rock was the perfect amount of warm, not too hot as to burn her but enough to keep her feeling like a baby chick in an incubator. As she sat on the rock, looking up, the sun glinted a bit harshly and she closed her eyes. Laying there, warm rock beneath her, eyes closed, the gentle waves rhythmically lulled her into a light nap. She didn't wake or notice as someone came up -

Interacting with @Willow Anderson.
Hope this satisfies your silly fluffy needs!