Distracted by a Novel PV Finished

"Pretty much all of my family has gone to Hogwarts," Miranda replied with a nod. "Except for some distant cousins that go to Beauxbatons, I think. I've never actually met them, but my parents have mentioned that part of the family once or twice." Sometimes it felt like a heavy weight holding her down, having all of these relatives and ancestors who'd already attended the school. No matter how well she did (or how badly, either), there was always someone who'd done it before her. It was one of the more annoying side effects of being a pure-blood. Sometimes Miranda found herself wishing she could have grown up in a different household, perhaps with one muggle parent or the like. But maybe she should feel fortunate instead. After all, at least her parents were mostly disconnected from their children's day to day lives. But for some of her friends, their parents were much, much too enbroiled in their children's lives.

Miranda glanced up, then took a left turn at a large suit of troll armour. "Almost there," she announced, peering closely at the doors on either side of the hall for the indicator she'd made back in her first year to help her find her classes easily. Well, at least more easily. Nothing was truly simple to find, unless someone had some kind of map.

"Correct," Miranda replied with a short nod. "And it's just one, if I can remember correctly. That part of the family moved to France perhaps a decade or so ago, and now their eldest daughter is attending Beauxbatons. In fact, I met her over the summer when they came to visit. They're all nice enough, if a bit hard to understand with their accent."

Hopefully that was enough to sate Akari's curiosity, because in all honesty, Miranda knew next to nothing about the French part of her family. Just that they seemed to be indifferent towards her parents, and by extension, Miranda and her younger brother as well. She got the feeling it was because her parents had become removed from the general workings of their far-reaching family, a fact Miranda was quite glad about, because she'd seen way to much in the way of fancy pure blood traditions and the like.

There was a pause in their conversation as Akari seemed to become preoccupied by staring at something they'd just passed. Miranda couldn't tell exactly what it was until the younger girl finally turned to her and gestures at the troll armour, which was almost out of sight, and asked what it was for.

"That's used by trolls. If I remember correctly, medieval wizards were fond of using trolls as guards or soldiers, mostly because of how little deceit they're capable of, and how powerful they can be if handled correctly." Miranda glanced back over her shoulder at the suit, then turned back to the hallway ahead of them, still searching for her indicator.

In the beginning of her first year, Miranda had tended to get the locations of her classrooms endlessly mixed up, and could only remedy that by going into every single room she passed, which was quite a large amount because the rooms of Hogwarts were seemingly infinite. As a solution, she had scratched a small marker into the wall a few doors down from each class so that she could look for that instead of searching inside rooms. Hopefully they couldn't be necessary soon, but for the time being they were a big help.

It was one of these marks that she was searching for at the moment.

At Akari's question, she looked up and over at the other girl in order to answer, and wait - yes, there it was, on the wall right above her head. "I was looking for that," Miranda replied with a grin, gesturing at the indicator she'd just spotted. If Akari were to see it, the marker would look like a small circle with three parallel lines scrapped through it. It was hard to spot if you weren't already looking for it, which was something Miranda had hoped for when making them.

"And that means the first classroom on our list is...right over here." Miranda walked three doors down from the symbol, and opened the door she found herself in front of, revealing the History of Magic classroom.

"This is the a History of Magic classroom," Miranda announced, happy to provide new knowledge. She gestured around at the rows of desks that faced the dusty chalkboard at the front of the room. She had many memories of sitting in those spots, listening with rapt attentiveness to every word the professor had spoken. Now in her second year, Miranda didn't pay as much attention, but that was mostly because she'd gotten ahead of their studies during the summer instead of simply being a poor student. "Most people find it to be quite boring, but I think it's alright. Some parts of wizarding history are quite fascinating, even if other bits are a bit repetitive." She paused, thinking. "In your year you mostly learn about different magical revolts and about the Witch Hunt era," Miranda explained, stepping into the classroom fully. She tapped her fingers against the top of one of the desks, glancing around the room again as she did so.

Both of Miranda's parents, from what little they told her, seemed to have disliked learning about History. She found it especially surprising in the case of her incredibly studious ex-Ravenclaw mother, who had always seemed to know everything about anything. Apparently that wasn't always the case, as she had grown to find out.

History? Before Miranda even finished her sentence Akari shuddered. Her previous assessment was correct. It was a duller class than the other ones that she had taken so far. Let's just say that history wasn't particularly her favourite subject. It could quite possibly be better than it sounds but Akari was pretty doubtful. She had never learned Magic history before and therefore was basing all her judgments off of Muggle history which had always made her fall asleep, so in her mind she didn't think that the chances of Magic history being more interesting were very high. Miranda mentioned that she found it alright so maybe, just maybe it will be bearable. She supposed she'd just have to wait and see.

"Magical revolts and the Witch Hunt era, eh? I guess that is not too bad. It certainly does seem more engaging than any of the muggle history I've learned though"
She replied with a small shrug

She continued to observe the classroom for a few moments more but as there wasn't much else to see there she stepped back towards the doorway and then looked over at Miranda and asked "Alright shall we move on to the next class?"

"It is," Miranda agreed. "I've read a little of what students learn in muggle classes - it sounds a bit tedious, honestly. Kind of repetitive, although then again, most history is like that, magic or no." She trailed off before she said anything else that might dissuade Akari from the class.

When the other girl suggested changing classes, Miranda nodded enthusiastically. "Good idea. Right this way, then." She led the way out of the classroom, then through a few more twisted corridors, though not nearly as many as they'd taken to arrive in the History classroom in the first place.

The next classroom was the one belonging to the Defense Against The Dark Arts teacher. Miranda's favorite class that she took, without a doubt. She loved learning new spells, and the DADA curriculum offered not only information on that, but also on magical creatures, even if it was only the more dangerous ones. Still, some teacher-based information was better than none. Not all books told the truth - that much was obvious. And besides, in most cases they were horribly biased. Professor Pendrast presented mostly facts, with common opinions as an afterthought. It was refreshing.

"This is the Defense Against The Dark Arts classroom. D.A.D.A for short, if you don't want to say the whole thing," Miranda explained, stepping aside to offer Akari a glimpse. She didn't bother stepping inside. The room was familiar enough that she didn't need to see it.