A Little Lost PV Cosmo Keith Finished

Cosmo was late for lunch, and hurrying through the castles corridors fully expecting not to run into anyone until much closer to the great hall, so when a voice called out -in french no less- she was a little startled. It had been an interesting experience to have all the new students join in the Hogwarts day to day routine, but if Cosmo was honest it hadn't really effected her all that much so far. Other than the odd conversation here and there she hadn't made friends with anyone, and so when she turned around and saw a truly gorgeous french girl standing not far away a wave of unexpected nerves overtook her. As she always did when flustered Cosmo began to chatter with increased bubbly charm and many smiles.

"Hey there! I can absolutely help, I was on the way to the great hall too," as she talked Cosmo walked up to the girl, and curiously took in her appearance. She was a full foot taller than Cosmo, which was made more apparent by her immaculate posture. This girl seemed to hold a gracefulness that Cosmo completely lacked. Being raised in the country had given her a particular kind of casual, brusk manner and a general lack of etiquette. Keeping this in mind, Cosmo tried to pronounce her words fully and hold herself a little taller.

"Would you like to walk with me? I can remember what it's like to be lost in here," Cosmo gave the castle walls a glance, "it's like a maze honestly!"

@Madeleine Nakamura

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@Cosmo Keith

"Amazing, thank you," Madeleine said, the relief evident on her face. As the other girl approached, the height difference was quite noticeable. Maddie knew she was on the tall side for a twelve-year-old, but she still suspected that this girl must be in the youngest class here at Hogwarts. A year below. And as she approached, Maddie couldn't help but notice the way she changed her posture. The French girl's head tilted slightly in curiosity, wondering why she did that but not wanting to ask.

"That sounds perfect," she said, a smile on her face as she agreed to follow the other girl. And it worked out because the Hogwarts girl was already going down to lunch, so it's not like Maddie was inconveniencing her. "Yeah, it is a bit confusing, but it's also really pretty. I love the stone, it's so, uh," she tried to think of the word in English but ended up saying it in French first. "Rustic." And then in English, "Old, but beautiful?" She nodded at this description, hoping it conveyed what she meant.

Maddie understood English perfectly, but sometimes her words still failed a bit when speaking. Her grasp of the language had definitely been improving over the last two years, having Cassanora as a best friend to practice with. Plus Madeleine's mother knew English, too, it's just that they naturally spoke in French at home, and only dabbled in English or Japanese when Maddie wanted to practice (which admittedly wasn't often).

"My name's Madeleine," she introduced. "I'm a second year at Beauxbatons," she said, looking down at her uniform as if that and her accent weren't enough of a giveaway. She looked back at the other girl, beginning to follow her through the halls.

"Oh, of course! I would hate to be in a whole new country and be getting lost and-" Cosmo dropped her smile to look very serious for a moment, "worst of all missing lunch. How could you possibly hope to find your way around a new school on an empty stomach!" As many eleven year olds do, Cosmo held meals in very high regard. Especially now that there were so many food choices each day, there was something very special about eating with hundreds of other kids, where there were new meals to try every day.

As they continued on through the corridors and Madeleine spoke Cosmo shot glances her direction, and listened to her accent. Everything about France was so very... well, foreign to Cosmo, and it intrigued her to no end. She waited patiently for her turn to talk but as soon as it was, her investment in the conversation was evident with the excitement in her tone.

"Old and beautiful is a very accurate description of Hogwarts, to be honest I think a lot of Britain is like that," Cosmo wondered briefly if maybe she should avoid asking questions about Madeleine's life back home, it was very likely that many people had pestered her about it since she first came here, but eventually she couldn't hold her curiosity in any longer and asked, "are the buildings in France also old? How is Beau-... how is your school different to this one?" Cosmo stumbled slightly over the strange pronunciation, and flushed bright red. It hadn't taken her very long to embarrass herself, and when she answered Madeleine's introduction she kept her head tucked resolutely down.

"My name's Cosmo, it's really nice to meet you," she took a quick glance up and smiled, trying to take attention away from her blunder, "and I'm a first year, Hogwarts," she added with a chuckle.

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@Cosmo Keith

"Lunch is a very important meal," Madeleine agreed, though she believed that of all the meals. Her body needed fuel to function and dance, so every meal was important! And there were so many delicious foods out there! Although nothing could beat her mother's cooking, she still thought the food here was good.

When the other girl expressed that she thought a lot of Britain was that way, Maddie smiled even more. "I haven't seen much of Britain, but if it's like here, then I agree! I've been to London once and it's incredible there - so pretty to look at," the excitement in her voice was evident, especially because her accent seemed to grow stronger the more passionately she spoke. Architecture was a deep-seated love of hers, considering the town she had grown up in. The fact that the younger girl was asking questions about it made Maddie like her even more. She was kind and interested in the stuff that Maddie like to talk about.

"French buildings can be very old! I am from a town called Colmar, it has buildings as old as, uh-" she paused, realizing her numbers weren't that great in English. She would have to list the numbers individually, "Well, it is one of the oldest towns, and one of the most beautiful. There are buildings still standing from the year one-three-five-zero," she said, sharing just a small tidbit of the knowledge she held. "Would that be thirteen-thousand-and-fifty?" she asked, feeling like that didn't sound quite right.

"Anyway, there are so many different building styles and colors and flowers and- well, even tourists come to Colmar because of how beautiful the town is," Maddie was incredibly proud of where she had grown up. It was famous, which suited her well considering she liked to talk about it and show off just a bit.

The girl asked about the Beauxbatons castle, and seemed to be embarrassed when she couldn't say the name. Maddie shook her head, trying to convey that she didn't need to feel bad. The young French girl failed to pronounce things properly too, as evidenced by her incorrect use of numbers. "It's bo-batton," Maddie said, pronouncing it slowly and in a way that hopefully helped the other girl understand. "And our castle is amazing. It's not as tall - there's only four main floors - but still really large. And we have a whole floor dedicated to the arts! And the gardens are so gorgeous and filled with so many colorful plants." There were a lot of differences between the two schools, and those were just a couple of them. "It's really amazing. Maybe one day you Hogwarts students can come visit us!"

"It's nice to meet you, too," Maddie said with a smile. Cosmo. She had not met someone with such a name before. "Is your name supposed to mean space?" she asked, pointing up towards the ceiling to aid in referencing outer space. "It sounds like the French word for it."

Cosmo was having a good time talking to Madeleine, and slowly she began to wish that she had started speaking with the visiting students before now. It was lovely to hear the french girl become excited, particularly when it emphasised her accent.

"Do you think you would ever come back? You could visit Windsor Castle and Lincoln Cathedral, I'm sure if you liked the buildings in London you would like them," Cosmo had been on a few trips around the country with her mum, and each time had held an appreciation for the buildings and history, but she would still always choose to spend her day outdoors. She listened, attention focused completely on Maddie as she spoke of her home town, and smiling reassuringly when she couldn't think of how to say the year properly.

"It's okay, it does make more sense that way but we say thirteen-fifty," for a moment Cosmo was glad she wasn't the only one struggling with the language barrier, but then she realised Madeleine was speaking a whole new language, and her respect for the other girl instantly doubled. "But I'm sorry did you just say flowers? Do you have flowers on your houses?" Cosmo was very excited to hear this, and almost tripped over her own feet from failing to pay attention where she was walking.

"My town, Chesam, is all build in tudor style, so there's lots of black and white. I would love to see colourful flowers on houses!" Cosmo had not really grasped the vast size of the world, and despite having studied a few world maps one afternoon, she had been incredibly sheltered from any other way of living, so talking to Madeleine now was eye opening for her.

Cosmo had long been thinking that it was a shame Hogwarts didn't teach art, and being able to learn about it and see other kids enjoy something she did would be awesome. Cosmo grinned giddily."I think Hogwarts should definitely go visit B- Beauxbatons, it would be awesome to see your gardens and food and do art with you and- just woah," she sighed happily at the thought, but her smile fell slightly when Madeleine brought up her name.

"Yeah... it means space, but kinda like how the world can work together? My dad always used to describe the cosmos as a harmonious universe," she took a deep breath, and puffed it all out with a fresh smile. "It's pretty cool that the French word and the English word are similar!"

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@Cosmo Keith

Maddie had some real pep in her step while talking to Cosmo, making her practically glide as she walked alongside. The first year girl was naming actual landmarks for Madeleine to visit one day, so she was taking great interest. Sure, Maddie loved architecture, but she'd really only studied the buildings in France and Japan, as those were the only two countries she had been to before this year. It was only this past summer that she'd branched out into the rest of Europe - Ireland and the UK - to visit with Cassanora. The London trip with her mum had been really cool, a little tour of the city before meeting up with Cass and Angel for ice cream.

"One day, I'd definitely like to travel all over the world," Maddie confirmed, when asked if she would return. "I'd come back here, and go to Russia, and to India, and to America, and to all the places with amazing buildings and history. I'll take pictures at them all and make loads of memories." A smile broadened her face as she spoke of her dreams. The twelve-year-old had loads of dreams, like dancing professionally, and visiting the places she mentioned, and being best friends with Cass forever.

"Yes, loads of people have flower pots hanging from their houses, it's really common. And the town itself has loads of them all over the public buildings, too," Maddie confirmed, nodding along to Cosmo's question of the flowers. "Careful," she giggled when Cosmo almost tripped in excitement. Not at the possibility of the girl getting hurt, but just at the infectious enthusiasm.

"Oh, that sounds lovely," Maddie said of Cosmo's hometown, which the younger girl described as tudor-styled black-and-white. Even if Cosmo wanted more color, Maddie thought a lack of color could be really cool too. "Maybe we could switch towns from time-to-time, so that we can each shake up our color palettes," she joked, grinning at the idea. Colmar was a huge splash of color, maybe some people might even think too much if they lived there all the time (though Maddie would never tire of her cute little town).

Maddie was looking right at Cosmo when she saw her smile falter at the question of her name's meaning. Uh oh. Had she said something wrong? It didn't seem like it a moment later, though, when Cosmo answered the question with a renewed smile. Maybe she had just forgotten for a moment. A weird thing to forget, though. Your own name's meaning. Madeleine knew the story of her own name well.

"It is interesting," Madeleine agreed, her smile smaller as she turned to look straight ahead at the corridor they were walking. "But from my experience, the two languages aren't too far apart? At least, not like with Japanese. It has a whole different alphabet and looks and sounds completely different than French and English." That was the other language Maddie was familiar with.

As Maddie listed places around the world Cosmo felt as though her eyes were growing wider with each new country mentioned. She remembered looking through scrapbooks of when her Mother and Father traveled, and imagined what Maddie's might look like. Her parent's had pictures of the moon and ocean, fish, and intricate swirling patterns in tree bark. She thought that Madeleine's might have a lot more architecture and friends.

"I'd never thought about travelling before, you'd probably have to wait until after school, right? Otherwise you would miss classes- and also money is a thing..." Cosmo was just beginning to think about how many things had to work out in order to travel, and took a quick second to be glad she was only eleven.

"Oohh, flower pots. I've seen them, we have geraniums in ours," Cosmo sounded disappointed for a very brief second before she perked up again, "I thought you meant flower murals on the houses, but that's okay! Now I'll just have to paint flowers on my house one day," she said, resolutely, as though it was a perfectly normal thing to be planning.

"Do you do art? If we were to switch towns and you did art you'd fit in well with my mum and friend, they both looove painting," she said, stretching out to word love to highlight just how much painting happened back home. "What would I have to like if I visited Colmar?"

Cosmo's mouth popped open when Madeleine told her Japanese had a whole other alphabet. She didn't reply for a second, just processing. "I didn't... I didn't know that could happen. Do you speak Japanese?" Cosmo was speaking a bit slower than before, her brain making connections here and there. Did each Japanese letter match up to one in the English alphabet? Were there the same amount? She had a feeling she would be thinking about this for a while.

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@Cosmo Keith

"Well, yes, I definitely meant after I finish school," Maddie agreed. The thought of travelling now hadn't really crossed her mind, considering she was only twelve. Her mom sometimes took them on vacation to different places in France, but summer was when she was really busy with work so they didn't normally go far.

"Oh, no, not murals," the French girl confirmed. There seemed to have been a misunderstanding. When Cosmo spoke of painting on the side of her house, Maddie smiled. Maybe that was a passion of hers - flowers and painting. Her follow-up question led Mads to believe it was true, until she mentioned just her mom and friend loving it. Maybe Cosmo had a different passion.

"Art is nice, but no I don't - I dance, though," Maddie explained. At the mention, she reached into her schoolbag and pulled out her slightly-worn pointe shoes to show Cosmo briefly. "Since I was very young," she added, putting the pointe shoes back in her bag. "It's actually how I ended up a bit lost - I was looking for the ballroom."

"I mean, you don't have to love anything in particular - but my mother is a wandmaker, so if you like wands and the process behind them, you'd get along with her well!" Madeleine said with a smile. "Most of my friends there are from the dance studio I went to before Beauxbatons," she added, thinking of them fondly. They obviously didn't hang out as much now that Maddie went to a boarding school, but the summers with them were always nice. Missing them made seeing them that much better.

Cosmo's surprise at the idea of a different alphabet for a different language surprised Maddie. She had never heard of a language like that? "Yes," Maddie confirmed, when asked if she could speak Japanese. "But not as well as my mother. Yet. She was born and grew up there, in Japan," she explained. "She tells me I should practice more, but I haven't met many people I can practice with."

They had gone down a floor, maybe two, since they had been speaking, and Maddie was starting to recognize her surroundings again. The dining hall must be somewhere nearby, because she could faintly hear a bunch of people in the distance. The twelve-year-old smiled at the realization.

Dancing was yet another thing Cosmo did not have much experience with. Her small town hall sometimes hosted folk dances, but it was generally only a few people who came, and everyone drank more tea than did dancing. So when Maddie pulled out the point shoes Cosmo looked at them in wonder, remembering all the mentions of ballerinas in story books throughout her childhood. So far she had given a wide berth to the ball rooms and any events that might include dancing, but after this conversation she was beginning to realise that people who danced might not be as posh and scary as she thought.

"The ballroom! To be honest I don't really know where it is either," Cosmo smiled sideways at Maddie, wondering how she would take this news.

It seemed as though everything she was hearing was new, and as Cosmo listened to Maddie talk of her mother and wand making she had to remind herself not to become overwhelmed just because she felt out of her depth. She heard something that might have been her mothers voice in her brain, reminding her that to make friends you must find similarities instead differences.

"I only had a couple of friends before Hogwarts, but they were all from my art class!" Cosmo grinned, remembering what it was like to do something with a group of people who shared her passion. "Are there dance classes at Beauxbatons?"

When Maddie confirmed being able to speak Japanese, Cosmo almost asked her to say something, but then realised that Maddie had probably been asked to speak French often a dozen times since coming to Hogwarts. Instead she laughed lightly. "That sounds familiar, my mum was always trying to get me to practice art, but before I joined a class it seemed a dreadfully lonely thing."

As they walked and talked Cosmo travelled through the halls automatically, her feet remembering where to go without her focusing, so as they rounded a corner and suddenly chattering filled the corridor she looked up in surprise. They had arrived at the entrance to the great hall, and Cosmo smiled up at Maddie. "Well, we're here!" she gestured happily to the door and students beyond. "It's been absolutely lovely talking to you, good luck finding the ballroom later!"