6 Mar 2022, 10:57
Prince Charming?
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26 March 2022
Stupid school, stupid students, stupid story. She could feel the anger race through her body with every step she took. If it hadn't been for the stupid ball, she didn't need a stupid date. The ball was a little over a week away and she still didn't have a date. Extremely frustrated and annoyed, Elizaveta walked into the courtyard. She needed to get away from all the other students, she wanted to be alone.
As soon as she sat down on the side of the fountain, the anger Eliza felt turned into sadness. Nothing had gone the way it was supposed to go. As soon as she arrived at Hogwarts she was supposed to have dozens of students ask her to the ball, at least that was what she had dreamed of. She had thought out her whole time at Hogwarts, but nothing from that happened. Not one single boy had asked her to be his date, not one! She had thought it would be different at this school, that she would have a good time and that nobody would be mean to her. Sadly, the reality was different from her expectations.
A little tear quietly rolled down her cheek, as she stared at her skirt. She wanted one of her brothers to be there to comfort her, but she was alone, alone in this big unknown school with all these unknown students. She wanted to run from this place straight into her brother's arms, they would help her, they would tell her it would all be okay, but she couldn't. Why had she ever thought it was a good idea to go to Hogwarts alone? She needed her brothers, they were the only ones who understood her.
She broke down in tears, why could things never go the way she wanted? Her sobbing could be heard by anybody in the courtyard, but she didn't care. In desperate need of comfort, she wrapped her arms around her shoulders, like she was hugging herself. She wanted to turn into a little ball and disappear from this awful place.
6 Mar 2022, 23:26
Prince Charming?
@Samantha Salwis
Having his school playing host to a bunch of students from other schools was never something that Julian was eager to experience. Hogwarts was a gigantic castle so it shouldn't feel crowded, but the fact that the students were mostly restricted to a small set of classrooms, had meals in the same place and slept in one of four common rooms, meant that the path from place to place still managed to feel eternally busy, with students chattering around him and constantly bumping into him.
Even though, in theory, he was curious about the foreign students and their schools and how their experience of them compared to Hogwarts, Julian found, in practice, that their effect was simply making Hogwarts seem that much more crowded for as long as they were visiting.
It was that feeling, precisely, that led to him doing his reading in the courtyard. His first pick would normally have been the library, but he kept going in only to find his favourite study tables had been taken, and the noise level was higher than usual--even the common room felt noisier (though Julian blamed the upcoming ball more than the visiting students for that). With March drawing to an end, the weather was much nicer for being outside. And chatter didn't carry as far in the courtyard, often drowned by the sound of the fountain, which made it a much more attractive option for spending an hour or two of quiet reading.
He heard the noise before he saw the girl. He was sitting against a wall when he did, knees tucked in, with a book he'd found in the library on the founding of the auror department resting on top of them. Suddenly, he found his attention drifting from the words on the page to the unmistakable sounds of crying. Not quiet sniffling either, but outright sobbing.
He looked up despite himself. It didn't take long to find the source, an unfamiliar blonde curled up on herself at the fountain. He hesitated only for a moment, but when no one else made a move to help, he sprung to his feet, pausing only to place his book neatly into his bag, before walking slowly, gingerly, towards her. He wasn't sure if she'd welcome the intrusion but... well, he couldn't very well just ignore a crying girl, could he? It just felt wrong.
"Um, hi. Are you--are you okay?" He regretted the words as soon as he said them. It was very clear that she wasn't okay. He didn't know what else to say, though, so he settled on thrusting his hands into his pockets and staring just to the side of her as he waited for her to reply.
8 Mar 2022, 12:31
Prince Charming?
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A hesitant voice greeted her and the boy to whom the voice belonged asked her if she was okay. Elizabeth hadn't noticed the other student approaching her and looked up in surprise. Her eyes were watery as she looked at the boy, trying to think of what to say. She wasn't okay, but did she have to share it with this random boy? Well, he probably already knew she wasn't okay, since she was clearly crying, so it made no sense to lie to him.
"No," she mumbled as she looked away from the boy. Her crying had stopped for a little when the boy had talked to her, but she started crying softly as she looked to the ground. "I am not okay," she told the boy with a slight accent. She could speak English, but her Russian accent was still hearable. She didn't know what else to say to the boy. If he had been one of her brothers she would have told him everything, but he wasn't. He was just a random boy, a kind boy who checked up on her. The only people who seemed to care enough for her to ask if she was okay were her brothers and mother. She didn't have many friends and wasn't popular at her school, so wasn't used to other people checking up on her when she was crying.
Elizaveta dried her tears and looked at the boy. "You are kind to ask," she said with a sad little smile, tucking her hair behind her ears. Her eyes drifted away from the boy and again tears started to form in her eyes. She felt horrible and lonely. Her brothers weren't there and she had no friends to comfort her.
24 Mar 2022, 02:07
Prince Charming?
@Samantha Salwis
For all that he'd asked, and for how clearly distraught the girl in front of him was, Julian hadn't expected such a straightforward answer as 'no, I'm not' when he'd asked if she was alright, and he found himself at a loss for words as he turned back to look at her. People in books usually tried to deny being upset, even though it made very little sense.
"Oh," he said. Then, after a second of mulling over what the correct thing to say might be (and a few panicked looks around him that informed him that no one more competent was about to take over the task of comforting this girl), he added, "Um--what's wrong?" He wasn't sure if she'd like him prying but, well, surely admitting she was upset was an invitation of sorts, right? And, in any case, he wouldn't be able to do anything to help her if he didn't know what was wrong.
If he could do anything to help her...
The girl's accent had provided a ready hint as to why Julian hadn't recognised her initially. She was clearly from one of the other schools (Durmstrang would've been his guess; it sounded vaguely Russian). It was entirely possible that she was feeling homesick, and Julian could hardly do anything about that. Hopefully, whatever had her upset was grades or homework related--that was the one field he was well equipped to help with. Or maybe some stolen possessions. He always enjoyed solving a mystery.
When she called him kind, he ducked her compliment both figuratively and literally by holding up one finger and running to get his bag.
"I have some tissues," he declared, pulling a small plastic packet after a few moments' worth of rummaging. "I think wizards are supposed to carry handkerchiefs," he added with a small shrug. "But I've always found the idea of carrying a dirty handkerchief with you sort of, well..." He trailed off, letting his wrinkled nose communicate the rest of the sentiment. "Even if you know scouring charms." He offered the packet up to her.
27 Mar 2022, 15:45
Prince Charming?
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The boy was quiet for a second before he asked her what was wrong. Everything was wrong, nothing went how it was supposed to go, but she couldn't tell the boy that. "I-" she sighed. Should she even share anything with this boy? She didn't know him at all, she didn't even know his name. But talking about how she felt always made her feel better and it made it easier for her to think. She doubtfully looked up at the boy, who seemed to feel just as awkward as she did. "Do you promise not to laugh?" She already felt bad and didn't want to feel even worse when the boy would laugh at her for still not having a date to the ball. If Eliza was being honest, she would have laughed if somebody had told her they didn't have a ball date yet. Normally she always had a ball date 3 weeks before the ball, if not earlier, but now she was alone and there was just a week left for the ball.
If the boy promised her he wouldn't laugh she would continue talking. "I was excited about the ball, but now I am not sure if I can even go." In Eliza's mind you could only go to a ball with a date, if you went alone you would just make a fool of yourself and she didn't want to do that. In her time at Hogwarts, she was supposed to have a lot of fun, but it had all been so horrible. "I hoped the people here would be nicer to me than at my school, but nobody likes me." Elizaveta was being a little dramatic, a lot of the students had been nice to her, but she only seemed to remember the mean ones.
After she had called the boy kind, he ran away from her. Great, he was already freaked out by her, Eliza thought as she started crying again. She was about to leave the courtyard when the boy told her he had some tissues and she realized he hadn't been freaked out by her but he wanted to help her. "Oh," she said embarred while she watched the boy go through his bag. Her dad was one of the wizards who carried handkerchiefs, but she decided to keep that piece of information to herself since the boy didn't seem to like the idea that much. Eliza just nodded agreeing with the boy, not wanting to have him think she or her dad was weird. "Thank you," she said with a little blush as she took the packet. It was really sweet of him to get the tissues for her, he was a gentleman. She hoped he was a better gentleman than Avery, the boy who didn't ask her to be his date.
Using one of the tissues to dry her tears, she felt a lot better than before. Not all students at this stupid school were mean, this boy was nice. Even though the boy had just seen her cry he hadn't made fun of her and somehow she felt comfortable with him. Elizaveta was rarely interested in people's names since she always gave them a random name the instant she saw them. This boy was different, she had been too busy crying when he approached her and she hadn't had the time to come up with a name for him. "What is your name?" she asked the boy, genuinely interested.
28 Mar 2022, 06:04
Prince Charming?
@Samantha Salwis
For a moment, the girl hesitated and Julian got scared that he'd messed up and made her uncomfortable by asking what she was upset about. But then she simply asked whether he promised not to laugh, to which he responded with a solemn nod. It wasn't a promise that he thought he'd have a hard time keeping. Teasing or making fun of others was something he went out of his way to avoid. He'd experienced it plenty when he was in primary school, and he knew how vexing it was to be on the other side. It wasn't even hard. He didn't quite understand why so many kids seemed to find it fun.
True to his word, he didn't laugh when she shared what had her in such a state, though Julian still wasn't sure he understood. The ball part, at least. People being mean to you he understood only too well, even though he'd never had that problem at Hogwarts. He cocked his head pensively.
"Maybe you've just gotten unlucky," he said. "You seem perfectly likable to me." He delivered the words with utmost sincerity, giving the girl a dimpled smile that he hoped came across as reasonably encouraging. He didn't know her all that well yet, but she really did seem nice.
He waited in silence as the girl took his tissues, only nodding his head in acknowledgement of her thanks. He was quite relieved that the worst of the crying seemed to be over and was about to ask more about what she'd said earlier, but she took him by surprise by asking his name.
A small frown creased his brow and he felt suddenly sheepish. "Oh, right. Sorry. I always forget--" You were supposed to introduce yourself when meeting new people. It was the sort of small gesture of politeness that always slipped his mind. "My name's Julian. I'm a second year. Hufflepuff. And you...?" he asked. He rather hoped she'd tell him what school she was from, too. He wanted to know whether his guess had been correct.
"So how come you can't go to the ball anymore?" He peered at her curiously. Balls weren't something Julian understood the appeal of, even when balls didn't seem to end in life threatening disaster every other year, which seemed to be the case at Hogwarts. There were too many people, and too loud music. He'd so far managed to avoid them for his entire school career, though that didn't mean he wasn't a little curious about what it was like at one of them. His mum kept insisting he should go.
Still, he wasn't sure he understood why she felt she couldn't go. The ball was open to everyone. She should be able to go if she wanted to, unless she'd perhaps run afoul of some rule and had been punished. Except that didn't explain her following her assertion that she couldn't go with talking about how nobody liked her.
30 Mar 2022, 16:08
Prince Charming?
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She was relieved when the boy nodded and hoped he would keep his promise. With every single thing the boy said, she felt more comfortable with him. First, he kept his promise and didn't laugh, then he told her she seemed perfectly likable to him. A little blush appeared on her face as she smiled through her tears. She didn't care anymore about how the other kids had treated her, this boy said she was perfectly likable, so she was. She found him quite charming and he seemed to know exactly what to say to lighten her mood and make her feel good about herself.
When the boy apologized for not introducing himself sooner Eliza giggled softly. According to her, there was no reason for the boy to apologize so she found it incredibly sweet that he apologized for such a little thing. Julian introduced himself with his name, year, and school? She had never heard of a school called Hufflepuff before and it took Elizabeth a few seconds to realize Hufflepuff was one of the houses of Hogwarts and not one of the schools. When she did, the confused look on her face changed to an enlightened look. Hufflepuff being one of the houses of Hogwarts made so much more sense than it being one of the schools. "Elizaveta Mikhailov," she introduced herself as she extended her hand for a handshake. "Third year, Durmstrang," she added proudly.
With the mention of the ball, Eliza's mood clearly changed, her sweet little smile disappeared and she quickly looked down. She avoided looking into the boy's brown eyes as she softly answered his question. "I don't have a date." She hated admitting it, it made her feel vulnerable. Eliza didn't feel anything about going to the ball alone. If she would, she would be alone the whole time and she wouldn't have anybody to dance or chat with. "I want to go to the ball, but I don't want to be alone," she told Julian as she looked up into his eyes.