Solitary solo

As iNPC Iris Fields

It had been an interesting year so far. Iris had, per usual, just kept up with the bare minimum for classes. Instead, she threw herself at any opportunity to do something active. Some people going on a walk around campus? Iris was there. An impromptu broom race? Iris was in the lead. Any activity that sprung up, organized or not, she was participating. She wasn’t exactly sure why or how she’d ended up being so active but it made her feel more alive. Also her grandma didn’t want to doing things that weren’t ‘ladylike’ so she was going out of her way to do un-‘ladylike’ things.

The trip to Hogwarts had been remarkably unremarkable. Iris had decided last minute that she didn’t really want to go to the dance since she didn’t have anyone to go with. All of her friends at current didn’t go on the exchange trips and she didn’t see any of the few familiar faces at the school the entirety of the trip. To be fair, she had been fairly busy overall, just not with anyone notable.

Iris was averagely sociable, though it was more in passing and not with the same person more than once. A quick conversation about a class test here. A discussion about her American accent there. There was once or twice she found someone who knew a couple words in Norwegian and she had an excuse to show off her skill that she didn’t see as a skill anymore. The main issue with all of the short discussions is that it left Iris still not really recognizing people in the halls or if she did she couldn’t recall their name and only had a hazy idea whatever it was they talked about.

It was unbearably lonely.

Iris had most nights at Hogwarts wishing she were home hanging out with her usual friends, wondering what had even brought her here in the first place. At home she could be racing around on her broom or chatting with her friends about cute peers instead of being forced into the slightly overpolite conversations with people she forgot.

She also had no status at Hogwarts. There was such a larger number of people around that none of them knew her or her family line. It was a blessing and a curse. A blessing in there were so few expectations to meet and a few times she could name drop her grandmother and gain respect. A curse in she wasn’t popular or notable for much of anything. Leaving her on the outskirts in groups of people who knew one another.

Iris sighed, realizing her dwelling on the overall boring trip to the UK wasn’t going to get her much of anything. She was back home after all. The weather was better here. The outside smelled familiar. She knew the people. It was predictable. It was far less lonely.