Come on Barbie, let's go party PV Ana B. Closed

Serena blinked at the Gryffindor's response to her question about the clubs. She did not anticipate the other student saying the words that she had actually said. Travelling? In the middle of a school year? Now that sounded like quite a story but her 'need to be polite' upbringing made her wonder if she ought to actually question it or not. She wanted to ask but she was not sure if she should. "I haven't really had much time for clubs recently, to be honest. I'm in the Hufflepuff Quidditch team and that's been taking up most of time these days," She admitted. Training for the games was definitely most of her spare time. She really wanted to do well.

"So you missed some of your education? It must be hard to catch up..." Serena wondered. She could not really imagine missing months of classes. It was kind of hard for her to study already, she would just be so behind if she missed months. Then again, maybe the truth was that the hufflepuff just sucked at studying.

She snorted a little - though her mother would be very mad if she had heard it - at Ana's comment on the food. "Honestly... I feel like they are so busy trying to be different or serve something rare and unique or expensive that they just forget to also make it tasty?" Serena replied with. Admittedly, she was not aware of why everyone chose what they did but from her experience of overhearing her mother when they were organising a party, it sounded like her mother focused on finding a rare or expensive delicacy. The amount of times she had heard her mother say 'oh no, we cannot serve that, it was done that so and so's party!' was ridiculous. Yes, some things got repeated but there was always a need to have a few 'rare' dishes.

Ana's face lit up at the mention of Quidditch. Quidditch was life, Quidditch was love, and Ana was highly Quidditch deprived. It had been months since she'd seen a match or done much other than practice flying by herself. "Oh, that's smashing," Ana said, trying to temper her excitement to still be poised or whatever she was supposed to be at a boring party like this. "How has Hufflepuff been doing this season?"

"My parents seem to believe that being well traveled is more important than my education. I have this tutor that travels with us, but between you and me, I'd far prefer to be back at Hogwarts," Ana replied, the sarcasm barely slipping through her comment about her parents. She was so irritated at their choice to keep her from school. She loved learning and desperately missed the few good friends she had made in her first year. What made it all the worse was that there wasn't much she could do about it other than ranting about how everyone ought to eat the rich in an attempt to get them to send her back to school. It hadn't worked. She could hardly wait to go back after Christmas. That was, assuming her aunt got better. Her parents had been discussing going back to New York to visit her because apparently, whatever fancy healers she'd hired weren't able to help much with whatever it was that was wrong with her. Ana wasn't supposed to know, about the illness or the trip or any of it, but she eavesdropped far more than your average teenager.

Ana laughed at Serena's reply about the food. "Seriously! They keep trying to think up different combinations of foods and different ways to cook it and they really don't need to. The French really have the right idea - cook everything in chocolate, wine, or butter. There's no reason to change that," Ana laughed, popping another bite sized dessert into her mouth. It wasn't quite as amazing as the previous one, but it was still delicious.

"Incredible! We won our first game this season. I am actually benched for the beginning part but they - Slytherin - took out our seeker, so I had to step in. Then someone knocked me off my broom but one of the chasers caught me. And we managed to catch the snitch!" Serena exclaimed proudly, retelling the story as briefly as she could. She considered adding names but she doubted that Ana would recognise most of the team.

She had no idea how she actually managed to catch the snitch but she was really proud of herself. In all honesty, she never expected to even play, let alone actually catch the golden snitch. This whole thing was a dream come true. They still had two more games in the season - against Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. However, winning one was really great. Serena was so pleased that she managed to contribute to her team too. The grin on her face was very telling of her pride. It was not mature and polite like what was likely expected from her at this event. It was childlike and pure, full of big eyes that lit up as though it was the greatest thing she had ever done.

Mostly because it actually was the greatest achievement of her life. She frowned as Ana explained that her parents travelled a lot - at the expense of their child's education. It seemed a bit silly when they could have allowed Ana to study throughout the year and then travel in the holidays only but who was she to question parenting? She did not know the first thing about it, "Wait so, are you just not coming back to Hogwarts anymore?" Serena questioned with a tilt of her head, wondering how it worked, "At the very least, did you go anywhere nice?" She continued.

It seemed like the Gryffindor was not a huge fan of travelling. At least, that was the impression she was getting. Or rather, perhaps, it would seem like Ana missed being at school. It would be a shame if she did not get to return to something she enjoyed. She had her whole life to travel, after all.

A laugh escaped her lips as she nodded, "I could totally eat everything just coated in chocolate..." Serena agreed. She had no idea about the wine but the chocolate seemed like a great idea. Butter too, to be honest. Butter was quite a tasty addition to a meal. She ate another appetiser from her plate slightly hesitantly, wondering if it would be terrible. It was not bad, however. Not great but at least it was not horrible.

Ana smiled widely as Serena recounted the Quidditch win. God, she wished she was at school as opposed to being dragged from continent to continent to attend identical parties. Games where seekers got knocked off their brooms and tossed from one teammate to another were the best kind. They were by far the most exciting. "Oh, that sounds amazing, I wish I'd been there to watch," Ana said wistfully. She hadn't seen a Quidditch match in ages, and other than her own flying, she was severely deprived of anything Quidditch related.

Serena's pride in her team was evident and Ana was living vicariously through her at the moment. Her ballet training and education had been intensified in their travels, but for Ana, as much as she loved to dance, there wasn't anything that came close to Quidditch. While dancing en pointe as she had begun the past summer was thrilling and close to flying, Quidditch was literally flying. Pointe also hurt a great deal, although Quidditch was definitely more violent than ballet.

"I'm intended to go back after the holidays, and I can hardly wait," Ana said. She knew her aunt's health was deteriorating, but surely, she'd be able to go back to school. She was beyond cooped up, which she found ironic considering the fact that they were traveling. The worst part was her parents didn't pay much attention to her beyond scolding her for not striving hard enough to be perfect and trotting her out at parties like a show pony or dancing monkey. Her parents hadn't been remotely receptive to her protests and had countered with a bunch of nothing about how this was the way that well-bred young ladies were brought up, and when that failed, said she was being a silly, spoiled, ungrateful child.

"I liked Paris, and Russia and China were rather interesting as well," Ana replied. "Truthfully, I'd much rather be at Hogwarts." Hogwarts was far more Ana's home than the museum-like London Manor, the chateau, or anywhere else she had grown up. Before she could agree with Serena's declaration about chocolate, she saw her father approach. Smiling at Serena, she stood as her father reached them. "Well, I must be going, but it was most lovely speaking with you," Ana said graciously as her father began to steer her away to go show some other pureblood parents how impressive she was. She would have vastly preferred to stay at the table with her hot chocolate and Serena, but then again, when did she get what she wanted?

Anastasia Beckett exits the thread.