Making Friends Closed

She laughed at Christy's eagerness, her bubbly mood mixed with Alessandria's excited nerves were making her a giggly mess by the time Christy announced that she had seen the hallway before, she smiled and peered at the frame along the walls "Are you sure?...It looks kind of scary..." She noted, the hall itself was rather dark and she widened her doe-like eyes.

Christy continued to pull her friend down the hall that she was so sure she'd seen before, but, when they reached the end of the hall, with still no lights or anything to be seen, she looked around with wide eyes realizing her mistake. "All of these hallways look so similar. I'm sorry... I guess I hadn't been down this way before..." she said as she looked at her feet, face flushed, and fiddling, nervously with her robes.

She looked around, her nervousness  kicking in as she moved closer to Christy, feeling fright overcome her "Its okay... we just need to... find... somewhere that isn't dark and terrifying" She held Christy's arm and glanced up at the paintings, she saw an old man and cleared her throat "Excuse me Sir?" She asked, the man looked up, his face portraying his annoyance at being talked to by students. "Could you please tell us where the Hufflepuff common room is?"

"And why the bloody hell would I know?" He grumbled and she was taken aback  by his rudeness, she nodded.

"Sorry.." She mumbled before pulling Christy down the hall, it seemed to paintings weren't going to be much of a help.

Christy watched as the girl asked... the painting?! "Why would she talk to a painting?" she thought to herself. When the painting answered her jaw dropped to the floor and she took a small step backwards. "I thought the paintings only moved... I didn't know they could talk, too" she said nervously as she continued to glance down the hallway every so often.

"I guess we'd better start walking back how we came since there's no other way to go..." she said with her head down. She never liked it when people saw her blush, which was quite often, because she thought people would think she was weak or something because she didn't really know how to keep up in this world. Being raised by muggles was definitely not an advantage here, it was more like a disadvantage since she always seemed to be lost and/or confused.

She was, at first, confused  by Christy's reaction to her asking the painting for directions but then she had to stop and remember that not every Witch and Wizard  was raised in a magical family, and some were born into Muggle households. She scolded herself for making Christy feel out of place in any way as it wasn't her goal to make her seem like she didn't know anything, she looked at Christy.

"Sorry about that, this must all be so new to you, I forgot my manners"  She offered a kind smile to the girl as they wandered the halls "If you don't mind me asking, what is it like, being a Muggle born? I grew up around magic so it feels weird to think that people don't use it, is it different for you, to rely on magic now?" She asked, she had always been curious about Muggles, what was it like NOT using magic to clean your room? Or stir your coffee? HOW DID MUGGLES GET THINGS FROM HIGH PLACES? Ally's head swarmed with questions but she didn't say anything else as she didn't want to freak the girl out.

Christy smiled softly at the girl's concern. "It's alright, I understand. It's hard to remember that some people don't live the same way. I'm getting used to it... slowly" she laughed a little. "It can be overwhelming sometimes, though. Especially since it seems that most people here are used to magick and I'm not. I feel like I'm falling behind everyone else because I don't have any experience with it yet." She thought back to her classes where she was late to each one because the stairs moved her in the wrong direction, or she went down the wrong hallway, and then, in her classes, everyone already seemed to know how to use their magick.

She shook her head out of her thoughts and realized that Alessandria had asked her a question: "Oh, um... I don't really know how to explain it since it seems so normal to me, but I guess it seems so ordinary compared to all of this," she paused to look around at all of the magnificent paintings, that moved. And talked. Weird. "Our pictures only show one moment in time, we make different things to help us do what you guys would use magick for. I'm not sure of any examples at the moment,though. I don't mind, though, you asking questions. I'd rather you knew than be left in the dark - I know how that feels, and wouldn't want anyone to feel that way." She smiled at the girl who knew everything about this world, but realized she didn't know much about the muggle world, so in a way, she was just like Christy, learning about a world she didn't really know existed.

She looked at Christy, her eyes wide as she pondered on what question to ask as she had so many, she paused "Wait... your pictures don't move?" She asked, astounded "How do you completely remember the day then? Is it in colour? They don't move, at all? Like at a-" She paused, getting too hyped up on the subject, she hoped she didn't scare Christy "Whoops, I'm getting ahead of myself.. again"

Christy giggled at the girl's excitement, "You're sounding like me now. And, no, the pictures don't move, at all. We remember the day by just being reminded of it from the picture. We have to rely more on our memory to relive important days." Christy was excited to finally have something she could talk about. "The pictures are coloured, yes, so that also helps with the memory of the day from having more details to jog our memories."

"Wow" She breathed, an eager smile on her face "What did your parents say? You know, when you got the letter?" She paused and bit her cheek, her own parents coming to mind "I do hope we get a chance to write to our families... although I don't think mine will be too happy.." She sighed but shook it off, she didn't want to bore the other Hufflepuff girl.

Christy thought back to when a mysterious letter came for her one day after she got home from visiting a friend. Her mom came up to her and handed her the letter, not wanting to open it without her, so Christy took it and broke the interesting seal, carefully unfolding the parchment. She read the letter carefully with her mum, and she looked up at her, confused. "Mum, what does it mean?" she carefully asked as her mum seemed to have the same confused look on her face, "I don't know, dove. It must just be spam." For a while they had just ignored the letter as Christy had never really experienced magick before. After a few days, though, Christy started experiencing strange things. Her mum told her no pudding after dinner because she hadn't finished her school work, yet. Christy felt it wasn't fair, so she kept wishing for the pudding that her other siblings were enjoying, and, suddenly, she had a plate of the dessert sitting in front of her. Her eyes widened in amazement, "Mum!" she yelled, still looking at the pudding. Her mum rushed into the room, her face turning angry for Christy having the pudding after been told no, "Christy Grace Blake, what did I-"  her mum started but Christy interrupted, "Wait, mum, I didn't do it, it just appeared, I promise! What if that letter is true? What if I am magick?" she asked desperately, as her father walked into the house from work, holding the same mysterious letter they had received days prior. "Hon, what's this? It's for Christy, but it looks so odd..." he continued to stare at the letter. Her mum took the letter gingerly in her hands and looked over at Christy.
                                                                                                                                                                                            

Christy looked back to her new friend as she finished telling her story. "Then, we had responded to the letter, extremely curious as we waited for the response, and you know the rest."