What a nice looking Violin PV Avery Chen, Winnie Harper closed

The female Slytherin was obviously lying, and why wouldn't she? The rather sadistic display she had publicly preformed minutes before was not forgotten quite so easily. A single plucked brow would raise towards her as the Ravenclaw managed to maintain her calm. "Maybe the 'violin destroyer' would be a better name for you?" She suggested with a shrug of her shoulders. Really Winnie shouldn't care about this interaction, but she had not managed to completely shut herself down and the boy's distressed cries had pulled at her heart strings.

Really the only crime Hildegard the crazy witch had commented against her was disrupting her peace. After the disastrous birthday party she had the day prior, that in itself was enough to earn her punishment. "Oh dear." Winnie walked up to where the girl stood, leaned down, and grabbed the broken wooden piece of the violin. She hummed 'thoughtfully', tilting her head as she looked at the piece, then over to the Slytherin, then back at the piece. She clicked her tongue against the top of her mouth to make a sound of disapproval. "Just a little tip for you; next time you decide to lie, at least try to hide the evidence better."

Turning on the heel of her pink converse, she made her way back over to the grieving violinist. She leaned down, placed the broken piece next to the wonky looking violin and took a step back. A hand would reach up to grab the handle of her aspen-wood wand, which had been stuck inside the ponytail she had pulled her hip length red hair into. She pointed the wand towards the broken instrument. "Reparo!"

WINNIE CASTS REPARO
WISDOM:
d20: 13 + 7 = 20
ACCURARCY:
d20: 20 + 7 = 27
CRITICAL SUCCESS!

The magic spell would burst forth from her wand and hit the instrument, causing the very shape of the violin to bend and reform itself until it had been returned to it's former glory. Perhaps it even looked better than it had before, but considering Winnie had only seen it briefly, it was likely just her ego getting the best of her after she had successfully cast the spell. Her shoulders, which she had not realized she had been tensing, relaxed.

"Are you alright?" She turned to face the violinist, her blue eyes flickering down to check if he was physically injured. He looked unharmed, so she reached into her side satchel and pulled out a small travel-sized packet of tissues, pulling the top one out and offering it to him. "Here." Whether or not he accepted the tissue, she would also give him her name, "I'm Winnie, by the way, Winnie Harper."

Hildegard the crazy witch dared to compare the accidentally broken musical device to her purposeful violin smashing. Did that even make logical or ethical sense? He had been genuinely sorry that her gift from her parents broke, but obviously he could not say the same for how Hildegard felt about his violin. He really didn't get it. How could a person possibly lack so much empathy for someone who was their friend?

Indeed, as the red-haired girl said, Hildegard's name as 'violin destroyer' was quite appropriate. A name quite befitting a crazy witch who favored destruction so desperately.

And she kept on denying that she didn't know where the last piece was. Avery really wouldn't think it was below her to take a piece as if it were a trophy. Actually, he didn't even know what to think about Hildegard at this point. Did he even know her? She was such an unpredictable thing. He could finally see why Ming detested the pale girl so much. It was as if the blinders had finally been removed, and he glared at the girl through teary eyes.

Then he sniffled a bit, and wiped a stray tear that had spilled onto his cheek.

Somehow, it didn't surprise him very much when the lost piece fell out of Hildegard's sleeve as she turned to walk away. He knew it! She really had thought to walk away with a piece for herself! He could hardly move while the older girl reprimanded her and picked up the piece from the ground. Avery was so weighed down by his distress and confusion at the events that had transpired, that he wasn't sure he had full control over his body at this point. It was as if a cloud of weakness had settled over him -- a part of his mind was almost still in denial at what was happening, and it was as if he was watching everything take place through a window.

He watched in a daze as the older girl set the missing piece down, and cast a spell. To his awe, with his mouth slightly open, the parts of the violin began to shift and reform itself into a much more familiar shape. He gazed at the violin in wonder. The chip on the side when he had accidentally bumped his violin against the metal music stand had disappeared. Did the thumb-sized imprint on the side of its neck, where he had laid his thumb countless times as his hand stretched down the fingerboard, disappear as if it never existed?

"Are you alright?" the girl turned to him and asked, handing him a tissue. He took it gratefully and wiped his tear-stained cheeks, then blew his nose loudly. The small boy stared at the violin. "It-it's fixed!" he exclaimed. And there it was; what was broken a moment ago had been fixed. He had never felt that magic could be so useful as a tool as he did now; not when he learned the Dancing Feet Spell, not when he learned about plants that would strangle you when you moved, not when he learned how to shoot red and green sparks from his wand. Did magic allow for consequences of recklessness to be reduced that dramatically?

He was brought back to reality as the older girl introduced herself as Winnie Harper. "Thank you so much, Winnie," he said with reddened but drying eyes as he used his tissue once more. "I thought my violin was done for, but I'm so grateful that you came to help. I didn't know it could be fixed so well." Actually, it did look a lot better. Magic really did wonders. And the girl really didn't have to step in, so he really appreciated it.

"I'm Avery Chen, a first-year in Slytherin," he said. "I-I really thought I was done for." For his entire life, he had grown up thinking that when things broke that badly, they could never be fixed. Really, his parents would probably have had his hide and his beloved instrument would never have played another note. "Sorry if I over-reacted." If Winnie was wizard-born, perhaps it would be strange to see how distraught he was over a broken violin.

@Hildegard Schneider @Winnie Harper

Green : talking
Purple : thinking

-Oh shut up ! This is just a misunderstanding ! I was not hiding anything ! How dare you accuse me without knowing anything about what happened or withotu real proof ?! She denied.

She paused while they were doing their thing, and then added angrily :

-...And you ! you ! She addressed to Avery.

-You filthy dungbomb ! You and your kind got nothing to do here ! You better leave !

Her face was turning red with anger, she wanted to jinx the boy, her anger that she contained while breaking the violin went free.
Schneider would have gladly casted a few spell on her lost friend however the presence of a upperclassman and the fact she was outnumbered stopped her from doing so.
The girl tried to leave as she felt that they might come after her, when the violin would be repaired. She was a bit scared but more angry than anything else.
She hated him now, she hated Avery Chen this filthy Mudblood who broke her gift and did not even have his stupid violin properly broken.
He may be easygoing on the surface, but that's what pissed her off, for her, he did not care about know how to take responsibility !
She heard a bit about people from China and his Chinese culture, from what she heard Chinese people could either be Samurai or Ninja, both being a type of Chinese person who were at war with each other.
From what she heard Samurai had a great sense of honor and would never disrespect anyone, they would go as far as to kill themselves because of their sense of honor.
Which was not the case for Avery, this Mudblood of a snake probably was the later kind, a ninja, no honor and sneaky Chinese boy ready to stab in the back ! Little did she know that her information about China were completely wrong.

Hildegard Schneider started to leave the place, but it was not without a final insult to the boy :

- You ninjas should get exterminated by the samurais !

Leaving the thread unless stopped

Interacting with : @Avery Chen | @Winnie Harper

A young girl with light auburn hair had entered the courtyard. She held a stack of books in her left arm. Humming softly, she sat on the edge of the fountain and opened one of the books continuing to read from the page where she had left off.

A small smile came over her face, she didn't like to read very much. But at times she used to take time out to read, either to satisfy her boredom or for her own enjoyment...

She noticed that there were some students in the courtyard there, but she ignored them; it wasn't important now. She ran her eyes over the reading and got lost in a sea of words she couldn't easily understand.

It was a comforting experience for her, at least that herbology book. It wasn't so favorite of her, but she would like to understand the art of botany.

She turned to the next page, feeling focused on that thrilling climax between learning wild magical plants like the Devil's Snare.

Seeking to understand that plant, she turned to the next page, where there was only one topic talking precisely about that plant. Damn.

She wore a heavy coat because of the cold. And gloves in her hands too.

There was a slight smile that cracked the girl's mask when the boy named Avery blew his nose rather loudly. She would lay a hand onto his shoulder if he would allow her to, gently patting it to offer some form of comfort.

When Avery complimented her spell casting the girl's cheeks flushed a soft pink hue. She honestly wasn't usually that good at casting spells, but for some reason, her spell seemed extra powerful that day. Perhaps it was because she was able to channel her emotions properly? Whatever the reason, it had made her look like a better spellcaster than she really was, but she wasn't about to tell the younger boy as much. It couldn't hurt to let him think of her as some sort of prodigal spell caster, right? ... Right.

She cleared her throat and tried to compose herself. Winnie did not like seeing people bullied. She did not have much to gain from helping the Slytherin, except perhaps a new friend, but she could still remember how lonely she had felt when she was a first year. She had often been made fun of for her then usual dishevelled appearance, which had long since corrected after learning a proper cleaning spell, and her random bursts of poetic nonsense. She had grown quite a bit since the year prior.

"I-It was nothing, artists have to stick together, right?" She would assure the boy with a quirk of her lips and a small nod of her head. Although her artistic talent did not particularly lie in the musical category, they were both creators of sorts. If anyone could understand adoring an instrument of one's craft it was Winnie. "It's nice to meet you, Avery. You're a Slytherin?" Her smile widened; so he was Mattie's lower classman. "I'm in Ravenclaw, second-year, but a lot of my friends are Slytherins." Perhaps she had just made a new one.

It was then that Winnie noticed the nasty little violin breaker was still talking. She stood up straight, a small smirk pulling on her lips. "Proof? I saw you break it with my own two eyes. I was literally just over there." She gestured towards where she had been sitting. Why was the girl trying to get out of this now when she was so obviously at fault? It was a bit amusing, really.

"And you had a piece of the violin on you... How stupid do you think I am?" She quirked a brow, still gripping her wand as she took a step forward and rolled her shoulders back. "Hildegard, was it?" She had remembered the boy screeching her name earlier. "What a terrible name; it suits you. Do us both a favour and stay away from my new friend. I just finished detention last night and I really don't feel like attending again." For such a short girl, Winnie possessed a scary amount of strength. It must have been from enduring farm work during her childhood and the fact that she had taken Quidditch up as her hobby.

She groaned at the last comment. "She's a blood purist and a racist; her parents must be so proud." She quipped as she turned back around to face Avery.

He blew his nose into the tissue, the stream of tears finally settling down and his body finally calming with the positive turn of events. As Winnie patted his shoulder in support, he remembered to breathe deeply and finally get a hold of himself. Things were okay now. His violin was fixed and like-new, as if it had never received any trauma to its delicate body in the first place. If instruments would have feelings, he hoped that his would not remember any of the pain.

"I-It was nothing, artists have to stick together, right?" Winnie smiled kindly. He managed to nod into his tissue with a small smile. So, she was an artist as well? He wondered what her medium of art was. He would have to ask her about it sometime. Right at this moment, however, he was focusing on his breathing so that his nerves would finally still. He was grateful that Winnie took it upon herself to keep the casual conversation going, so he could take his mind off of things and refocus. He nodded again after she asked about him being in Slytherin, finally feeling his chest settle. "Oh, cool," he managed to look up this time, upon Winnie mentioning that some of her friends were in Slytherin. "Maybe I know some of them or have met them in passing? I'm in the Snape Dorm. Anyone I might know?" he asked, finally feeling a bit more like himself.

However, it seemed that Schneider had more to say before she was done masking her thieving and tormenting Avery. Filthy dungbomb? His 'kind' had no right to be there? What in the world did she mean by that? He crumpled up the used tissue in his hand, which had now turned into a fist, and stuffed it into his pocket. Wasn't this what Ming thought she was, one of those pure-bloods who detested anyone with muggle ancestry, when she had mentioned 'their kind' on the Hogwarts Express? He hadn't really taken her for that type of person, and had given her the benefit of the doubt when he decided to become friends with her, but he was obviously wrong to do so. Ninjas and samurai? What in the world was she going on about? Surely, she knew that ninjas and samurai were not Chinese, or were all Asians the same to her and she didn't care?

This was the first time he had received two types of discriminatory, derogatory remarks in the same interaction. His neighborhood had been generally kind and open-minded, with children whose parents taught them well, so a feeling of such intensity was rather new to him. Immediately, it seemed that he was cast as the outsider, as the one who didn't belong, no matter how hard he tried to meet people, help out, or to prove himself. The way Hildegard said it, it seemed that nothing he tried would make a difference, simply by the way he was born. For a second, he was inclined to keep quiet and stare at the pale girl, mired in his own thoughts and the realization of the alien-ness of his being.

He flushed slightly when Winnie came to his defense and called him his new friend. That was so nice of her -- did an upperclassman like her really not mind being friends with a teary-eyed first-year? At Winnie's remark about Hildegard being purist and racist, and the way she groaned at the pale girl's words as if it was the most absurd thing she had ever heard, Avery felt his courage seeping back. He regained his composure and straightened his back. Yeah! Hildegard was the outrageous one, for thinking less of him in this way. Who did the girl think she was? "Hildegard, I think you've done enough, so please leave before you make yourself seem even worse," he said, coldly. To Winnie, he sighed and rolled his eyes at Hildegard's absurdity. "Yeah, just because her parents gave birth to her, she thinks she can use it against other people." Honestly, what an accomplishment it is to be born. All hail Hilda for her pure blood.

Anyways, he hoped that Hildegard would take the hint and just leave them be. He was still curious about Winnie's art, after all. "Oh by the way, Winnie, what kind of artist are you? I was wondering when you mentioned it," he asked, genuinely wondering what her craft was.