CL Sweet old ladies with food

"I'm going to walk around for a bit, alright?" Alyssea said to the girl across from her. Their conversation lulled into an awkward silence and, while she could understand that she was probably still shy from just meeting half an hour ago, she needed some more socialisation.

Thankfully, the girl didn't seem to mind. She waved Alyssea off and said, "Don't worry. I'll be here enjoying my chocolate frogs."

They both laughed and Alyssea got up. She closed the compartment door behind her and walked down the train. She hadn't finished looking at all the compartments for empty ones when she found her current compartment mate.

She peered into the doors, but never stared long enough to get questioning looks. Before she settled down, she found compartments overflowing with established friend groups. She didn't want to butt into already-determined dynamics, so she opted to find individual compartments.

It didn't take long before she found said compartment.

The girl inside had a handful of chocolate frogs laying beside her on the seat. Alyssea inhaled deeply, trying to calm her nervous jitters, before knocking on the door.

When the girl heard and looked up at her, Alyssea offered a smile and opened the door.

"Hey! Mind if I sit with you?"

@Lisa Langley

There was a certain peace to be found in letting the world rush around you. That was exactly the peace Lisa found as she gazed out the window. The sights were beautiful, a palette of colours shining at her from a chaotic canvas, the beauty sharp yet blurry in it's beauty.

It somehow made sense, in it's own way, she supposed. She grabbed a chocolate frog from the handful scattered on her seat. Opening the little box it had come in, she firmly held on to the frog even as it writhed in her grip. A groan escaped her as it slowly melted on her tongue.

This was life. Chocolate was life. End of discussion.

She was startled out her chocolate-induced trance by a voice coming from the door. "Hey, mind if I sit with you?" The voice belonged to a girl about 4'6 with a short bob.
"Ok, Lisa. This could potentially be your first friend here. Do not mess this up."
She smiled at the stranger, offering her a chocolate frog.
"Yeah, of course you can. Want a chocolate frog?"

Interacting With

@Alyssea Brown

The girl snapped out of her trance, which Alyssea could understand. She had a chocolate frog in her mouth which she swallowed. She gave Alyssea a smile. "Yeah, of course you can."

As Alyssea closed the compartment door behind her with a small "thank you" and sat down on the opposite couch, the girl held out a packet. "Want a chocolate frog?"

Never one to turn down chocolate, Alyssea took the pack with another "thank you" and opened it.

The second she tore a hole into the pack, the frog leapt out and landed on the compartment door. Shrieking, she made a grab for it when it jumped to the opposite side and onto the windowsill. Eventually, she grabbed the frog and put it inside her mouth. The chocolate simply melted on her tongue and she sighed. She would never let a magical frog beat her.

She then went back to the packet and took out the card inside. The name read, 'Circe', and there was a beautiful woman. Her curly hair had pearls scattered throughout and tied half-up with a golden band. She imagined Circe a little differently, but perhaps that was the beauty of modern literature; no one story could ever be the right one.

Alyssea cleared her throat and looked up at her compartment mate. "By the way, my name is Alyssea." She offered a smile. "What card did you get?"

@Lisa Langley

The girl sat on the couch, opposite to hers, accepting the chocolate frog in her outstretched hand. Her momentary battle with the frog was so endearing that it caused a laugh to bubble out of her. She finally got the frog and focused on her card.
The girl smiled at her, a smile which she returned in full.And she could finally stop wondering what to call her.
Alyssea. It was a beautiful name.
"I'm Lisa, but you can just call me Li."
She looked around her, searching for the card which she had tossed in favor of the chocolate.
To be honest, I completely forgot about those. Hold on, gotta check"
Finding the little card, she let out a small 'aha' of victory. On the front, there was a picture of Daisy Dodderidge. She was a cheery woman with the kind of smile that made you want to smile back. She had a drink held in one of her hands, the other firmly planted on her hip. The drink was raised towards Lisa in a silent cheers.
"I got Daisy Dodderidge, you?"
She flipped the card over, curiosity fueling her. Who was she? Was she still alive? Some sort of celebrity?
The card's brief description did nothing to quench her curiosity, only sprinkling a little water on it. Apparently, she had built the Leaky Cauldron, and people loved her generosity and the atmosphere of her pub.

Interacting with:@Alyssea Brown

interacting with @Lisa Langley

Lisa. Alyssea's second friend at Hogwarts.

Maybe not officially, but who knows? Acquaintances are better than nothing and it's a good place to start as any. Besides, how else are you supposed to get friends if you don't start out with interacting first?

"Hold on, let me check." Lisa picked up one of her packets in search of her acquired card. Alyssea kept Circe in her hand. Circe was always her favourite mythological character (or perhaps she was never a myth to begin with. Magic was real, after all. She was sitting in it.) so it seemed fitting it was her first chocolate frog card.

Lisa let out an 'aha!' which let Alyssea know she got something. After a quick read, she answered. "I got Daisy Dodderidge. You?"

Daisy Dodderidge. Who was she? She'd briefly seen the name in her father's box of cards, but she never read the description.

Alyssea lifted the card to her. "I got Circe." She said with a grin. "Who was Daisy Dodderidge, by the way? I'm not familiar with her."

She then flipped the card over in her hand. "It says here that Circe was an ancient Greek who lived on the island of Aeaea and was an expert at turning lost sailors into pigs." Alyssea raised her brow with a satisfied chuckle. "Wow, what a queen, honestly."

Alyssea had a grin on her face as she flipped the card over, "It says here that Circe was an ancient Greek who lived on the island of Aeaea and was an expert on turning sailors into pigs"
Her eyebrows rose along with Alyssea's as Lisa threw her head back and laughed.
"That is incredibly badass. I kinda want to learn the spell for that."
"She sounds like a badass. What do you think about learning that spell and then boom, all our enemies mysteriously vanish?"

She paused for a second, debating with herself as she weighed the pros and cons against each other.
"On second thought, let's turn them into something other than pigs. They're actually quite cute."
She let a small smirk touch the edges of her mouth as she thought about a pig she once pet a couple years ago. Her uncle Darren had immediately taken her inside, grumbling about germs. She then had to wash her hands atleast ten times. Not fun. (The scrubbing her hands till they were raw, petting the pig was a different story)

Alyssa also wanted to know who Daisy Dodderidge was. She mentally filed Circe into the 'must find out more about' part of her brain and repeated what she had read to her friend(?), "So, about Daisy, well, it seems like she started the Leaky Cauldron, and people really like her generosity and the atmosphere in her pub"

Interacting with: @Alyssea Brown

interacting with @Lisa Langley

"On second thought, let's turn them into something other than pigs. They're actually quite cute," Lisa said.

Alyssea shrugged at the comment. Pigs were a good choice already, but she was right about them being cute. Baby pigs in particular were a delight to look at.

If Alyssea had to pick what she'd turn men into, it would have to be frogs. Unless you're Tiana, no one in their right mind would kiss a frog. That is gross. Or maybe bees? People are afraid of bees and they can't live without their stingers. Seems like a good trade-off, right?

Alyssea shook her head and laughed. Circe girl-bossed and she absolutely admired her for that.

Daisy Dodderidge was the founder of the Leaky Cauldron, Alyssea discovered thanks to Lisa. The Leaky Cauldron? Alyssea had briefly seen the pub when she went to Diagon Alley to grab her school items for the year, but she mostly avoided it since, well, it's a pub. 11-year-olds aren't meant to be at pubs, are they?

She saw the other packs beside Lisa. "Hey," Alyssea began, "What other cards did you get? You have quite a few packs there with you."

She made a mental note to visit the Leaky Cauldron next time she went to Diagon Alley. That probably wouldn't be until next year when she'd come back for second year.

"Um..I have..." Lisa grabbed her cards and shuffled them into a neat stack.

"Devlin Whitehorn, Garrick Ollivander, Hengist of Woodcroft, Jocunda Styles, Rowena Revenclaw and some other people.
Honestly, the only people I recognise are Ollivander and Rowena. What about you?"

She offered the stack of cards to Alyssea just incase she wanted to read the backs of them. She had never been good with names, although faces were a different story. She could remember them down to the very last detail and if she saw them once, she would always recognise them. That being said, it was a miracle she remembered Alyssea's name this long.

She didn't know why she was being so damn quiet. This wasn't like her. She was usually reserved, granted, but never quiet. It was travel jitters. She never was quite the same when she went somewhere new. She got weird, adapting personality traits of anyone she interacted with, causing her to shape a version of herself that the other would like most.

She didn't want that to be the foundation of her friendships, not anymore. It was best to clear that up, before she settled into the pattern of changing how she behaved for every single person.

"Just so you know, if you choose to stick with me, I'm an extremely sarcastic person and insults are my main form of communication. So don't say I didn't warn you.

Interacting With: @Alyssea Brown

interacting with @Lisa Langley

"I'm not big on wizarding history, unfortunately, but I'm sure that'll change when we go to school," Alyssea chuckled, "I'm big on Muggle history, but we don't learn that at Hogwarts so much, do we?"

Still, Alyssea read the cards and learnt their names. She knew who Rowena Ravenclaw was, though; her parents would not be impressed with her if she didn't. After all, her mother was a Ravenclaw. How could anyone forget who Ravenclaw was?

As she read the cards, Lisa informed Alyssea about herself. Alyssea smiled at the statement. "I think I can handle that," she chuckled, "I think the real challenge is putting up with me. I'm gonna be loud as hell so either be prepared or I can leave, of course."

People like to call Alyssea an extrovert, but it's the sort of thing you develop when you're always on the move. Always seeing new places, always settling somewhere different, always meeting new people; it sort of becomes a habit to seek and connect with others.

It was hard, at first, to be loud and heard especially in places where dynamics are already established. Assimilation did little to help and it often became more of a chore rather than a relief. Alyssea learned that, if she wanted friends, she just had to be herself. Loud and proud, her theatre directors used to say.

If you asked Alyssea herself, she'd say she's more of an ambivert rather than just an extrovert.