Natural Enemy... or Friend? PV Finished

Anastasia didn't understand half of the things that Soyna said, but decided not to question it. She knew what New York was, but she hadn't the faintest what "West Side Story" or most of the other things she was talking about were. "That sounds most lovely. I've taken ballet and singing lessons since I was very young, as well as learning how to play a few instruments, but I've never been much of a performer," Anastasia told the other girl. A few was putting it mildly. She played at least half a dozen including piano and violin, which were her personal favorites. She was technically excellent at them, but she just didn't love music the way this girl seemed to. She preferred singing, but she wasn't passionate about that either. Her real love was Quidditch, despite her father's efforts to squash it out of her. 

"My family is rather strict, but if you behave yourself, you generally don't have problems," Anastasia began slowly, careful not to speak badly of her family to this near stranger, no matter how nice she might seem. She didn't mention the fact that her cousin had been disowned for disagreeing with her mother and father, or that her own parents had threatened to do the same when they'd heard about her sorting. She didn't tell Sonya about how her parents ranted about Muggleborns, and how they used the word that Anastasia had quickly discovered was absolutely unacceptable at school. Instead, she kept of her facade of perfection. 

Anastasia flushed a bit at the girl's reaction to her words. Normally, people didn't ask her questions like that because either her family was there with her, or they already knew the family. Things were quite different at school though. Most of the people hadn't even heard of the Becketts since they were half-bloods or muggle-borns who wouldn't have really had reason to have heard of the family. She felt rather bad for having misrepresented her family to this girl. True, she thought she had been rather generous in her description of her family, but clearly, that wasn't quite enough. 

Anastasia listened intently as the other girl described her family. She couldn't imagine losing her mother. They didn't exactly have the warmest relationship, but her mother had been a fixture throughout Anastasia's entire life. The thought of her mother dying, really, either of her parents dying, was like the thought of the Minister of Magic dying. It was a possibility, but everyone knew that it would probably never happen. 

She noticed the girl didn't say much about her mother's death, and she didn't blame her. Anastasia was a stranger as of ten minutes ago, and nobody wanted to start off a friendship or anything else for that matter. "Oh, that's most fascinating. My parents are rather protective, so we haven't traveled much. What's your favorite place that you've traveled to?" Anastasia asking, grinning. Protective was one word for it. Another word was muggle hating and not wanting to risk contamination. Again, not something you'd want to tell a near stranger. 

"London's alright," Anastasia said after the girl finished speaking. Frankly, she wouldn't have minded if Sonya had kept talking about her travels for another hour! First off, Anastasia liked gathering information about others, but secondly and more importantly, Anastasia longed to travel and hearing about Sonya's travels was almost as good as doing it herself. She'd read about a million books about different countries and places that she wanted to visit, but it was clear that it wasn't at all the same as talking to someone who had actually been there. "It has a surprisingly high population of wizards, all things considered."

She glanced back at the Quidditch Pitch and was again filled with dreams about the amazing game. She really did love Quidditch more than nearly anything else on the planet, and honestly couldn't fathom why her mother stopped playing. She'd been one of the most promising young professional players, and then she'd just quit when she got married. Even now, her mother didn't play, even for fun, which Anastasia found downright baffling. If you loved a sport enough to try to play it professionally, then why would you suddenly stop playing altogether? 

She shook herself out of her thoughts and back to the present. She didn't think that zoning out and ignoring someone was the best basis for a friendship.

Anastasia smiled a bit. Brave wasn't exactly a word she would have used to describe herself a few months ago, but she was trying to be now. It was strange to her since bravery wasn't particularly valued back home, but she was getting used to it.

 "Gryffindor's great," she began. She wanted to laugh, since, just a few weeks ago, she'd been furious at her sorting. Also, looking back, maybe cursing at the sorting hat wasn't the best idea she'd ever had. In the past few weeks, as she'd settled into Gryffindor, she'd found herself doing things like chasing down homework while yelling at a bird, or getting detention for hexing her cousin. All of those things would make her mother faint, but somehow, now, they felt normal and right. Either that or she was going crazy. Maybe it was both. Who knew? 

"I mean, obviously, having the preteens with the least impulse control all put together may not have been the brightest idea, but it really is great," she continued. "I'd like to think so, but brave might not be the best word to describe me with. Occasionally impulsive and reckless, probably. What about you? You must be hard working to be in Hufflepuff, right?"

"Sounds like Hufflepuff is the perfect place for you then," Anastasia told the girl. That was the first time she'd ever said that and really meant it. Back home, Hufflepuff was something of a joke - what self-respecting house valued loyalty above knowledge or resourcefulness. Since she'd met more Hufflepuff, she was beginning to see that, despite the fact that Hufflepuff definitely wasn't a fit for her, didn't mean that it was useless.

Anastasia laughed a bit when Sonya said that she wouldn't have associated reckless with Anastasia. Few would upon first glance, and while Anastasia wasn't constantly breaking rules or anything like that, when she did, they were colossally stupid and reckless. Cursing at the Sorting Hat sprang to mind. Who in their right mind would curse at the being who would decide where they would be spending the next seven years? Anastasia, apparently. "You'd be surprised how many times I've heard that one," Anastasia said good-naturedly. "I'm hardly a poltergeist, but I'm not exactly the prim and proper girl my mother would like me to be either." That wasn't saying all that much, since, even if she was as obedient as her mother would have liked, she still wouldn't have been proper enough for her. Her mother standards were, frankly, ridiculous and utterly unrealistic. Obviously, Anastasia would never say that to her mother or anyone else, but she thought it quite often.