Practice Making Friends PV Group Closed

-Interacting with @Willow Anderson
Mentioning all the Blazing Badgers-
Outfit

With the beginning of the new school year, it meant that the new duelling season was fast approaching. When last year Lydia had joined the team, she felt like she had found a place where she truly belonged, where she could combine her love for studying, magic and spellcasting, and where to find new friends to share this experience. She had been so excited that she had applied for the Captain role, and together with Amadea first and Willow later, she had the chance to continue this adventure. Sure, things had been rough in the second and third stage, but Lydia still really enjoyed her time in the team, and now that the season was about to start once again, she couldn't help but feel the excitement spread through her.

This year's team had some familiar faces, together with new ones, and the idea of this little party was to get everyone more acquainted with their teammates, and bond over some food and tea. Of course it wasn't mandatory for them to come, but Lydia still hoped that some of them would stop by and have a nice chat. The way the duelling club looked in that moment was different from the usual, with the food up on the platform and the practice dummies all on one side, but it still gave Lydia that feeling of home like it usually did, just with a twist of Hufflepuff to it.

Once everything was ready, she got some pretzels in a cup -she didn't want to make the whole place dirty- and sat on the platform facing towards the door, as her legs swaying from side to side. Snacking on some of them, Lydia adjusted her light yellow and black flannel shirt over her black tank top, before she decided to tie her hair in a half ponytail, the black nail polish standing out over her strawberry blonde hair. For the occasion she had dressed up as she usually did when they had time off during the weekend, with the only exception that her usually pink clothes had been swapped, during the summer, with darker ones; she didn't know why, but wearing pink didn't feel right anymore, not for now at least.

Lydia then looked at Willow and, if the girl would have looked her way, she would have found her giving her a thumbs up with a smile, trying to show her support. Of course Lydia was feeling nervous about the new duelling season: the pressure of being a Captain and a third year was a lot, but she knew she wasn't alone in that, that she had Willow to count on as well, and the rest of the team too.

As the first people started to arrive, she would get up from her sitting place and greet them with a charming smile as she would say "Hi! We're glad you came by,".

It was with bated breath that Julian stepped through the door of the duelling club on the evening in which he would officially meet his teammates. He felt a little queasy, nerves and excitement mingling in the pit of his stomach and making all the snacks around him seem about as appetizing as his mother's cooking (which was to say, not very). In truth, he'd arrived a few minutes earlier, having left the library in a hurry, afraid of being late. He hadn't wanted to be too early, though, so he'd spent five minutes or so pacing the corridor outside, waiting for his watch to hit the appropriate time. He had soon come to regret the decision. Those five minutes had been more than enough to stew in doubt about what awaited him.

He had no idea whether the decision to sign up for duelling had been the correct one. He had no expectations that he'd be very good at it--quick-thinking and reflexes were not his strongest suits--and he wasn't sure he even wanted to be. After all, succeeding in duelling meant successfully casting spells at other people--what if he hurt someone? And yet, wasn't that exactly why he wanted to learn to duel? So he could, if he ever had to? The image of the shadow creature that had made its way into the common room on September first had not been far from his mind ever since the start of term, and he couldn't help but wonder if anything might've been different if he'd known how to duel then, and if he'd been better practiced at duelling spells.

He bit his lip as he was immediately met by two cheerful greetings, raising his hand in a stiff wave.

He also wasn't sure about the meeting itself. It wasn't obligatory, but Julian couldn't very well miss out on the first team event. It didn't seem very responsible. But he also wasn't sure how he felt about the fact that the primary intention seemed to be simply socialising. He'd never really known what to do with himself at other kids' parties, and often simply brought a book. At least he had his bag with him, so he could sneak into a corner and get some studying done if it came to it.

"Hello," he said. Then, after a second, as it occurred to him that there was no reason his captains would know who he was, he added, "I'm Julian. Um, Pritchard." He thrust his hands into his pockets and glanced around the room, quiet until his eyes fell on what were clearly practice dummies; maybe they'd been asked into the duelling club because the plan was for more than just snacks and talking. "Are we--are we going to be practising any spells?" Maybe they could persuade the older girls to teach them something interesting.

[ @Alexa Mackenzie • @Lydia Cooper • @Willow Anderson • @Julian Pritchard ]

If you'd come up to Lucia Fox two years ago and told her that she would one day be a semi-accomplished duellist with two wins under her belt, she would have laughed at you. Not to your face, of course... but there would definitely have been laughing involved. Probably to her sister Briar in her letters. (Who, funnily enough, was the one who suggested that Lucia should sign up for duelling at the start of the Hufflepuff's second year.)

And yet, here she was, laughing at one of her best friend's jokes (spoken in a soft voice and not quite as funny as usual - Alexa was still in mourning for her mother, inwardly if not outwardly, and her jokes were becoming scarce and halfhearted) as she made her way towards the duelling club, ready to start off her second year as a Hufflepuff duelist.

"I feel so old," Lucia murmured to Alexa as they neared the door. "You know, with all the new people. We're senior members now. We're experienced." She ran a hand through her newly dyed (was it still called 'dyed' if a spell had been used) hair, trying and failing not to betray her nervousness at meeting the new members of the team. "Is that a good thing? We're experienced at knocking people out with magic. I feel like that's not a good thing. Oh, Merlin. I bet they all think we're so violent." Lucia's nerves were quickly turning into panic as she tripped over her words. She stopped walking and wringed her hands together as she spoke. "Violent Hufflepuffs. Merlin's beard. I don't want people to think I'm violent! Okay. Okay. Quidditch is worse though, right? Because of the bludgers? Oh, Merlin."

Lucia took three deep breaths.Calm down. Alexa was here too, and Alexa didn't think she was violent. "Okay. Okay." She stepped forward and pushed open the door, peering in and- "Oh, phew." Only Lydia and Willow (looking a little different in a way Lucia couldn't quite pinpoint) were in there, and Lucia already knew those two - after all, they were the captain and co-captain. Lucia held the door open for Alexa before going through herself, and then suddenly noticed someone she'd never seen before. Was this one of the new duellists? Oh, Merlin. Lucia had to make the right impression.

"Hi." Well, that wasn't very smooth, was it? Lucia berated herself as she tucked a strand of black-blue hair behind her ear. "Um. How was your holiday? This looks great." And then she looked properly at Willow and realised what was different about her. "Willow!" Lucia gasped. "You're blonde! Is that your natural colour? It looks really nice!" Oh no, was she going to bore the new boy? She should say something to him. Include him in the conversation. "I'm Lucia. Lucia Fox. I'm in third year." She held a hand out to the younger boy.

permission to godmod Alexa making a joke to Lucia and entering given

Alexa, dressed simply in a t-shirt and jeans with her new blue chucks, walked in slightly behind Lucia. Since she was hanging out with her best friend, who was allergic to her best animal friend, Rascal the rat, she had left her pet rat behind in the dorm. She felt a little lonely without him, and was glad to be with her friend Lucia. Even if she felt a little awkward coming to a party. There was likely to be more than one person here, and she had had trouble lately dealing with more than one person at a time.

It was still early in the year, and Alexa still couldn't get the death of her mother out of her mind. She knew she had been down, quieter with her friends and boyfriend, but she couldn't seem to help it. Though her friends didn't know it, they made her very happy. Much happier than she had been in the summer. It just still didn't feel like it was enough to be herself. Would she ever be herself again? Could she possibly?

So she walked in the room, murmuring a joke to Lucia with a slight smile and a mild chuckle. That was the best she could give nowadays. Lucia began nervously babbling about violent Hufflepuffs, and Alexa smiled. Lucia babbled when she was nervous, and so Alexa laid a calming hand on her friend's arm. "Easy does it now," she said, smiling at her friend. She marveled at Lucia's gorgeous raven black hair, so black it was almost blue. Nervously, she took her own red locks behind her ears. Then, changing her mind, she let them loose again. It would be easier to hide her face behind her hair if she got nervous herself. Which was most likely in a crowd.

She saw Lydia and Willow, faces she knew from last year, and smiled a little more broadly as she waved at the captain and co-captain of this year's dueling team. "This place looks great," she told them, looking around at the decorations and food. She started heading over to a table, when she noticed a boy also standing in the room. Lucia had just introduced herself and was waiting for a response. Stepping behind Lucia, she poked her head around her friend's shoulder and smiled at the other boy. "And I'm Alexa," she added to Lucia's introduction, but not offering her hand, as Lucia was currently offering hers. "What's your name?" She asked the other boy, feeling a little shy.

@Willow Anderson@Lydia Cooper @Julian Pritchard

Jake didn't really know HOW this had happened.

It was his third year at Hogwarts, his first year as a teenager, and already everything was a whole big mess.

He had attended dueling tryouts, because his friend Julian was going. It was there he'd gotten talking to Willow. Jake hadn't tried out, of course. He'd just been watching. He would never participate in a duel. He didn't even get how anybody did. He'd never expected that that one little decision would have led to a job.

He still wasn't sure how the whirlwind had happened. At first the idea had sounded like a good one...The Hufflepuff team had needed help, and Jake wanted to help. Even more than that, dueling was dangerous. And it was now not one but two of his friends that were playing it. Who was going to make sure that things were safe? There were two things that Jake knew as well as anybody at Hogwarts: Animals, and following rules. Maybe he could make sure everybody else did that too. He'd been nervous about his friends that day...being able to keep an eye on them had made him feel better about it.

But as he stood in the doorway now, looking at the chattering members of the Hufflepuff team who had made it so far, he was struck by a crippling stage fright. What had he been thinking. He couldn't do this!

Jake took a shaky breath, and forced his feet to move, carrying him into the room. He hurried over to where Willow and Lydia were standing. "Hi," he mumbled to them. "Sorry I'm late, I...." Jake began, hesitating. ('Was too scared to enter the room?' That wasn't how captains talked...) "Just um....sorry."

Willow had told him that this was when they were going to announce him as a Captain too, but now that it was time, he couldn't help but have second thoughts. He could feel his arm shaking, even though he wasn't even one of the duelers. But having to stand in front of a group of other kids was scary too, and having to do it when he was expected to know what he was doing and even be kind of in charge? How?

But Jake was determined to do a good job, and he was determined to be taken seriously too. He had gone through his clothes to try to find something that couldn't be taken as childish. He had eventually decided on a plain yellow T-shirt. That was the Hufflepuff colors...so that would have to be okay. It was a Hufflepuff event, after all. The boy took his place now beside the girls, standing up as straight as he could and pursing his lips in determination. This summer he had grown practically another inch, bringing him up to an even 4'6, and he was going to look all of it and then some. He had worn a couple extra pair of socks too, just in case that would give him a little bit of an edge in the height department, which was part of the whole being taken seriously thing.