Making Friends and First Steps! Closed

Renée had never played gobstones herself, though she knew of the game. Her father had brought her a beautiful set of Wizards chess when she was 8, all whites and greens. They’d played a few times, her father repairing the pieces till he grew tired of the game and palmed Ren off to her mother.
Elanor wasn’t great at the game, but she’d taught Renée nonetheless… now Ren watched in awe as the gobstones game went on before her.

The blonde tilted her head as the game drew to an end, a small smile on her lips. Only once the last move was made did she tear her gaze away, noticing one of the players was a Gryffindor boy, who was looking back at her.
In fact he’d risen to his feet and was walking over.

He paused in front of her and introduced himself, Gabriel Palmer, or Gabe. He was a first year too, and when he asked if she was she nodded and smiled.

“Sorry for staring, I’ve only ever heard of the game… it looks fun though. My names Renée Danvers, or Ren” She extended a hand politely, as she’d seen her parents do when they met someone. She wasn’t sure what the point of shaking hands was, but it seemed polite and there was no need for her to make a bad impression…

Interacting with @Gabriel Palmer

After the sorting ceremony had finished, Emma Moonwater went to the Slytherin dorms to get settled. It took her a while to find her way, but she successfully got to her dorm and started to unpack. Being an organized person she was unpacked and ready to go rather quickly. She had some time on her hands and decided to go do some exploring, see where everything was. It was so easy to get lost here. While she thought she was headed towards the great hall again, trying to retrace her steps, She found herself in front of the beautiful courtyard. Since it wasn't cold yet, Emma decided to go outside for a bit and get some fresh air. While she started walking outside enjoying the last bits of sun, she noticed a girl who was vaguely familiar. Emma remembered her from the sorting ceremony. She passed under the hat right before her. She couldn't remember her name, but she knew she was a fellow Slytherin. Emma wanted to walk up to her, but then she saw she wasn't alone. A boy wearing some Gryffindor robes and another student, who had their backs turned, so she couldn't see what house they were, were playing Gobstones. The Slytherin was watching them play. Emma wanted to watch the game. She has only ever heard of this game. Her parents never explained the rules. So she didn't know how to play. Emma didn't want to distract them from their game, so she quietly walked towards them. When she was close enough, Emma heard the Gryffindor boy and the girl talking. The Gryffindor boy introduced himself as Gabe or Gabriel Palmer. And the girl was Ren or Renée Danvers. Emma then was right next to them and said, “Hello Guys! My name is Emma Moonwater, I'm a First Year from Slytherin. Are you both first years too?” She was smiling friendly, hoping she had not scared them off and said the right thing, she didn't know the first thing about making friends.
At home her life had been quite lonesome, her parents were too protective to let her make some friends.

Gabe was happy to learn she was also a first year, at least he'd make a friend he hoped. He smiled and gestured his hand in a dismissive manner when she apologized for staring. Her name was Renée Danvers, Ren for short. He shook her hand as she stuck it out, smiling. Gabe usually shook people's hands when he met them out of respect and kindness, he was happy to find someone else who did the same. Many people thought it was weird. Another girl came up to them, another Slytherin from her robes, introducing herself.

This girl's name was Emma Moonwater, interesting name he thought. He nodded his head when she asked if they were also first years. It seems the rumors he heard about Slytherins were like he said, rubbish. Nothing was wrong with them, honestly, he was expecting to get Slytherin at the sorting ceremony. They were nice girls, just trying to make friends like him. "Hello Emma. We were just introducing ourselves. Have you ever played gobstones?" Ren hadn't played it but heard of it, gobstones was pretty popular. He leaned up against the fountain, watching as the boy he was playing with found someone else to play with. He was still listening to Emma though. "Oh sorry, I'm not sure if you heard. I'm Gabriel Palmer, Gabe for short. This is Renée Danvers, Ren for short." He gestured to the other slytherin, smiling at her.

Mentioning: @Renée Danvers and @Emma Moonwater

Ren smiled as the boy took her hand, before spotting the newcomer, a fellow Slytherin. The girl introduced herself as Emma, a name Ren recalled from the sorting ceremony, she had been called out shortly after Renée, though the two hadn't really interacted much since the food had come out pretty soon after her name was called.

She waved as the girl got close and nodded when she asked if they were also first years. Gabriel asked if Emma had ever played Gobstones too. Then he reintroduced both himself and her in case she hadn’t heard them as she approached.
“Hey! A fellow Slytherin I see! Nice to meetcha... I can't believe we don't start lessons for a week yet." Renée said with a smile, holding her hand out to Emma now, as she had for Gabe.

Ren was excited to make another new friend, although it was probably too early to consider either of the them friends just yet, she was pretty hopeful. Plus, if Emma was a fellow female Slytherin, they might end up being Dorm mates, which would be extra great!
"I've never seen anyone play Gobstones before... My parents preferred Wizards Chess, but they wouldn't let me bring my set because my fa- I mean my dad didn't want it leaving the house... " Ren wasn't sure if calling her father 'Father' was too formal, or weird for that matter. She was still quite new to socialising outside of her families guests after all.

Interacting with: @Gabriel Palmer@Emma Moonwater

The Slytherin, Renée Danvers and the Gryffindor, Gabriel Palmer both introduced themselves and said they were first years too. Renée Danvers, the Slytherin girl, was a nice girl but had a familiar air to Emma. She is the type of person you would see at the gatherings at her house. Emma guessed she was someone from an important house but didn’t know precisely.
She then turned to Gabriel, A boy with brown hair and a friendly smile, She saw that he was asking her a question.
...Have you ever played with Govstones?” Gabriel asked. Emma then answered, hoping not to sound too weird for not having played it before, “Gobstones was always a game I admired from afar. My Father used to play with some of his mates after Quidditch training, but I never asked to join them. I never learned the rules. I was content watching the game. Although, I would love to learn later on how to play.” She then turned to Renée Danvers, the fellow Slytherin girl she had seen earlier that day. The girl explained how she also didn't play. Renée even has never watched a game before. It didn't surprise Emma. By the looks of her posture and the way she spoke, it was safe to assume she came from an important family. Gobstones weren't known as the definition of Fancy…
Emma chuckled lightheartedly, “It’s not uncommon you don’t know the game, it took my Father the longest time to convince my mother to even let him play, let alone host some games at our house. And that was only after doing the housework for 5 months… A lot of the Muggleborns don’t know the game too ”
Emma then asked, “Do you guys know how not to get lost here? I don’t know how I’ll manage to get to the right classes on time next week. Everything is so confusing. As soon as I think I know where something is, I end up in the wrong place.”
Emma was happy she made a few friends. She thought to herself, that this is the first step to having a great year and the nerves from this new chapter in life slowly started to fade away.

Olive was very smart in general but she had a tendency to get lost...a lot! So getting to an open place rather than being inside surrounded by pictures, doors and stairs felt great! She overheard a girl talking about possibly struggling with finding her way to classes and felt relieved she wasn't the only one. So she approached her and the other girl and boy she was talking to to introduce herself.

Hi! I'm Olive, Olive Jones. Sorry to invite myself out of the blue into the conversation...but...I couldn't help hearing what you just said about finding your way around here... This is a maze, isn't it??!! Are you first years too? I mean... I am.

She smiled and waited to see if they would welcome her in. She was a bit nervous but, at this point, just trying to get to know people and trying to not embarrass herself again like she did in the train. People were just people. She kept telling herself that so that she wouldn't be afraid anymore. Good things require effort and so did change. If she wanted to make friends, she'd have to put herself out there, talk to people. If they reciprocated, awesome! If not... Well, that one she was familiar with already so, just more of the same. But things were going to be different because she had decided to embrace change, to fight for it if need be.

Those three seemed nice. What could go wrong?

Unbuttoning the top button of his shirt and pulling at the red and gold tie that was fastened around his neck. Matthew strode out of the castle and into the courtyard, smirking quite happily to himself as he perfected his rugged look, unfastening the clasp on his Gryffindor robes so that they hung open before plunging his hands into his trouser pockets.

As he moved across towards the other end of the courtyard, his eyes fell upon the ongoing game of gobstones and his eyebrows raised somewhat, not quite sure why people would want to play a game that could leave you smelling so foul when exploding snap and quidditch existed. For some reason, however, he found the scene rather curious, and it didn't take long for him to realise why. He glanced up, at the one Gryffindor boy that was surrounded by three Slytherin girls, and immediately he assumed the worst. Already he was witnessing the vicious pack mentality of Slytherin House, ganging up on one lone student, and to make matters worse it was a fellow Gryffindor.

His hand ran through his hair as he took a deep breath before returning it quite coolly to his trouser pocket, walking up in a way that felt relaxed and intimidating to himself though in reality he probably looked a tad foolish.

"Right, what's goin' on here then?" His voice was strong at first but faltered slightly at the end as he began to see that none of them looked to be harassing the Gryffindor boy from this close.

Renée glanced up as another Slytherin girl approached, looking somewhat lost, while Emma asked about how she and Gabe were doing finding their way around the school. Olive, the newest girl introduced herself, tagged onto that question to agree that the school was a maze.
Ren laughed and shrugged nodding as she looked up at the castle.

" Heh.. yeah it's a pretty big castle huh" she mused, before looking back at Olive and smiling "I've just been following everyone else so far... Maybe we could all stick together? I'm Renée by the way, and this is Gabriel and Emma. Nice to meetcha Olive"

As she finished introducing them to Olive another boy strode over, Gryffindor colours visible. Renée sensed animosity in his approach, but couldn't help but think he looked a little daft bolstering over like he was. When he spoke she raised an eyebrow at him and then glanced around at her new acquaintances.

"Nothing?" She retorted "Just trying to make friends... Did you think just because we three are Slytherin that we were up to no good?" She gestured to Emma and Olive before shaking her head. Her first taste of house based prejudice... Rotten.
"We were only discussing schoolyard games and getting to know one another anyway... Maybe you could join us?" If nothing else, Renee wanted to try and start on the best foot, so trying to be friendly even after the mild insult of his accusation seemed the best course of action.