Of Magic and Quarrels PV Memphis Herndon Closed

Wini tilted her head slightly, her eyes moving to look up as she chewed on his question. Did he look friendly? He seemed annoyed, and if annoyed was the opposite of friendly, then yes? She thought about it a bit more, before simply answering with a casual shrug.

Wini then gave him a smug look, “Really? I didn’t notice,” She teased, referring to his statement about his ‘unfriendly approach’. It was kind of amusing to see him get annoyed so easily. It was even more intriguing when he stuck around.

She watched him as he pulled out another book, leaning on his elbow and beginning to read. Her blue eyes followed his finger as he read a sentence. And then went back and read the same sentence. And then the same freaking sentence. Again.

Wini’s face twisted into annoyance. “Why do you keep reading the same sentence?” She asked, tilting her head at the question. She forced herself to look away from his repetitive reading, choosing instead to look towards the window that showed outside, bright and sunny. Wini suddenly had an urge to go outside, maybe climb a tree or dare to jump into the lake. Wini’s annoyed expression had vanished as her blue eyes flickered back to the boy in front of her, expectantly waiting for an answer.

His face soured as she spoke of his rereading. He did it by instinct; his brain was mixing up the letters for him every day, making the lines seem so similar that they actually began to repeat and repel his eyes from the page. His eyes saw the future as something small but something that excluded this problem if he just kept on reading; Dyslexia it was called. Found his nightmare's name by his eighth birthday, when they visited a doctor about it. Oh boy, was that a trip.

"Mind your own damn business," Obviously, he was touchy with the subject and warned her with a mid-low growl for an answer. He scrunched his body to get away from her. To close himself off and never get back to her or the topics she wanted to speak of. Annoying and foolish she was, to be speaking to him.

Sometimes, Memphis felt bad for the people who wanted to be friends with him. They were so clueless, and if Memphis was a tad different, he'd tell them off before they got excited to talk to him; to feel something to him and to worry for his own health. But he didn't. He just closed himself off ever since he first got to meet people outside of the family. He felt ashamed for his behavior in a way.

She was one of those foolish kids, those flies that get trapped in the web and want to get out, but it's too late. Her words already hurt him, and he wasn't sure if he could be nice to her anymore, or polite whilst biting down his anger even.

Wini's eyes widened slightly as she shifted in her seat. She was startled by his sudden outburst and her brows pinched together in worry as he seemed to shrivel away from her. Did she say something wrong? It was a genuine question out of curiosity.

"Sorry," She said quietly, not sure what more she could possibly say. If it was any other situation, she probably would have lost her cool, maybe challenged him even. Then they both might have gotten kicked out of the library. But this wasn't the first time she had been in this particular situation.

Wini glanced at the boy again, wondering if she should maybe say something. He seemed pretty sensitive at the moment, and that was probably her fault. Wini cursed herself in her mind, wondering why she had to be so blunt all the time. No wonder she didn't have any friends at home. She was absolutely terrible at making them.

The small brunette sat up in her seat a little, putting her book down. "I don't have many..." She started, cringing slightly at how she sounded, "Friends."

Well, that came out. She blinked at him for a moment before asking, "What about you?" She supposed might as well attempt to be nice now since she had totally messed that up before.

Memphis grunted to himself in quite a low. aggressive tone and shifted on his seat to get away from her. He glared and bit his lip to not speak to her, yet words still spilled out of his mouth eventually. Tears were about to prick his eyes but he stopped himself.

"Could you please shut up? I am not interested in talking to you." He wanted to be calm, he truly did. He hated the way he burst out at random things that were truly stupid and were too miniscule for normal people to notice and get annoyed at. Right now, he felt like shaking. He felt like slapping her too, but he also felt like that was too much. She was just trying to be friends.

His words seemed to be even more blurred than before. He tried to focus on a word but it appeared to multiply and discard words and letters at his mind's own will. This is what he got for daring to believe in his interaction skills. Maybe she did say sorry, but he didn't feel like it was appropriate and that her words before were very blunt. Did she even care about his feelings?

How do I escape? How did I even get myself in this situation in the first place? Oh gosh, why does summary have four m's? I hate this so much... He hoped she would go away soon, or maybe even stop talking.

Wini frowned. She wasn’t startled this time, rather she was getting a bit frustrated. Why was this so hard? Was she doing something wrong? Every time she said something, he would just go off. It seemed like she was hurting him each time she opened her mouth.

“Ok, look,” She started, doing her best to have a calm voice as she closed her book, “We obviously got started on the wrong foot,” She continued, lacing her fingers together in front of her as she leant on the table slightly. “But maybe we can start over?” She asked gently, giving the boy an almost pleading look.

The small brunette had no idea if this would work or not. She didn’t have very much experience with people in general, especially her age. Her mother usually stayed at home, ordering groceries through home delivery. They became more secluded after her father disappeared, but even before that they traveled too much to get to know the neighbors. Wini was mostly homeschooled before her father went missing. Her mother put her in public schooling after that, the experience not being that great. She was the girl who sat in the corner, unsocialized. The girl with the father who went missing. But she was still the brightest, always the one to raise her hand in class first, eager to answer every question. But that only made things worse for her.

Wini extended her hand slowly, offering it as a shake of truth to the boy, “Please?”

"Are you serious? First, you offend me and now you think you can just befriend me? Pathetic." With his accent, he sounded like a bratty, rich kid and pronouncing the 'th' even more prominent than usual added to the illusion.

It was healthy to have enemies, he repeated to himself in his head as he eyed her. It's healthy to dislike someone, it's healthy to think of someone as putrid from the first view of them. She wasn't physically putrid, no, it's just her words and her blunt approach towards his Dyslexia.

Although, was it truly healthy to have enemies? This Hufflepuff therapy might be getting to him just a little bit more than necessary, for he thought that for once in his life, looking bad at people was well, bad. And it wasn't even that. He started to feel bad for the girl too. He started to feel like he could truly be friends if he tried his best on the job. Gah, he needs to slap himself when he gets out of this situation. He's not true Hufflepuff, never will be. He belongs in Ravenclaws but this whole school just seems to think otherwise.

He couldn't read by this point in time. Sometimes, when he was angered or stressed his reading would get worse and worse. This was one of the times. All he saw was a big blur; like someone spilled ink on the pages in a rude gesture.

Wini's brows twitched together just the slightest, but she controlled herself from exploding out in anger and chose to keep her hand out towards the boy.

"I did say sorry," She reminded him, giving the boy another pleading and sincere look. "And besides, there is nothing pathetic with making friends. You might find that you'll even like it," She smiled brightly, shifting a bit in her chair.

This would have to be a first for Wini. In fact, she was confident that her mother would be very proud if she knew how her daughter was handling it.

Wini's blue eyes glanced to the books stacked neatly around the boy. "Look," She started, lowering her hand so it rested on the table. "You read books, so which means you enjoy learning and experiencing, right?" She hoped this would work, but it was a pretty far stretch.

"Let's make this an experiment then," She continued, giving him a pointed look, "We attempt to be friends for the experience. Maybe even hang out together, but at least say hello in the hallways. Maybe we'll even learn something new. But it's just an experiment. If neither of us like it, we step out," She finished, nodding her head slightly.

"Deal?" She asked, raising her hand once again for him to shake. She prayed to Merlin that this worked.