A Quick Question & a Long Conversation PV Gabriella Haworth closed

Gabriella didn't know why Gia had asked to meet her, and the curious Ravenclaw had spent quite a while trying to figure it out. Was there something important Gia needed to tell or ask her friend? Did she simply want to catch up with Gabby, as they hadn't seen each other in a while? And if so, should Gabriella have bought snacks? The two friends had a history of bringing far too much food to meet-ups, so much so that Gabby wouldn't have been surprised if the house-elves in the kitchen knew the girls by name at this point.

After a significant amount of time spent pacing up and down in the common room wondering what to do, Gabriella decided she would just bring a packet of Muggle sweets from the secret stash underneath her bed and see what it was Gia had to tell her. She slipped on her trainers and overcoat - although it was May, it was still quite chilly - grabbed the sweets, and made her way out of the castle down to the courtyard.

Gia was already at the place they had agreed to meet when Gabriella got there. She was inspecting something on the wall - a poster for the annual Blossom Ball that was coming up the next week. Gabby hadn't been planning to go to the ball - not because she didn't want to particularly, but because she didn't want to put herself through the hassle of finding a date. Not when she didn't really know any boys. Anyway, she was twelve. Surely twelve-year-olds had far better things to do than find a date?

So - after contemplation, as always - Gabriella had decided she wasn't going to go to the ball, and therefore hadn't paid much attention to the posters as they were released. The theme was Ancient Greece, she gathered, which sounded enjoyable enough, but not so much so as to make Gabby feel she was missing anything big. According to certain rumours, the ball had been planned by the previous month's top earners of house points, which was cool, especially seeing as quite a few of those top earners were in Gabby's own year. But apart from that, the Ravenclaw hadn't really felt any inclination to go. Not this year, anyway. Maybe next time...

"Hi, Gia," said Gabriella, breezily. She pulled the sweets out of a large pocket in her overcoat. "I brought food, if you want some," she added, with a mischievous smile. "How are you doing? Are you planning to go to the Blossom Ball this year?"

Word count: 434
Interacting with: @Gia Adelard

--Wed. May 19, 2021⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯

Hearing a familiar voice, Gia turned around with a bright smile on her face. "Gabby, hi!" the first year exclaimed happily. They hadn't seen each other in way too long, she thought. It had been, what? A few weeks? A month? Whatever the amount of time, it was much too long for best friends to be away from each other, that was for sure. When Gabby pulled out the sweets from her coat, Gia's eyes widened. "Ooh, yum!" she said, grinning slyly up at the Ravenclaw. "I totally forgot about snacks... although maybe that was a good thing, 'cause if we both brought them, well, we'd probably have way too much food - like always." she laughed.

While gesturing to the bench that she'd been sitting on a few minutes ago before she'd gotten up to look at the poster, Gia answered her friend's first question. "I'm doing fine, although it's been sooo long since I've seen you. School work has been kinda annoying lately though, I just can't seem to stay caught up with everything that we have to do." There was a short pause as she thought about how much work she currently had to do, and then Gia looked up, pasting a quick smile over her worry. "How about you?"

At the other first year's second question, Gia's eyes brightened. It was almost as if her friend had read her mind, she thought. Although, of course, the Ravenclaw had probably just seen her looking at the poster when she arrived, the girl realized after a second. "Oh, yes, I'm definitely planning on going!" she said with a smile. "All these posters" - the Gryffindor motioned to the large piece of paper hanging onto the wall - "are making it look so interesting! I mean, I'm not that into Greek myths and stuff, but this looks like so much fun."

Now it was time to bring up the reason for asking her friend to come. "Gabby, I was thinking," she said without even the slightest hesitation, "that if you didn't already have a date, would you want to go together?" Tilting her head to one side in a questioning manner as she waited for a response, Gia drummed her fingers on her lap somewhat impatiently. "Oh - just as friends, of course." she added quickly after a few moments. Picking up a sweet, the twelve year old popped it into her mouth, still waiting.

⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯@Gabriella Haworth--