Closed An unplanned chat with a new friend PV with Seven Finney

─────Seven quickly finished writing out the answer to problem four and packed up their things. They took Lizzi's hand and stood up. The two began walking.

Lizzi started talking about the different classes at Hogwarts and nudged Seven before explaining their favorite subjects.

"All of the classes are amazing," Seven grinned. "It's all just so exciting! You probably feel the same way, coming from a Muggle family." Why had they assumed that? "Anyways, I think my favorite might be Charms, but it's early in the school year and my opinion could change."

Of course their 'opinion could change'. Everyone could change their mind. It wasn't that hard. Seven sighed quietly.

They then looked out at the Great Lake. There was supposed to be a giant squid living in that body of water, but Seven had never seen it. For all they knew, it was a story the older kids had made up to scare the first years.

There were apparently some magical creatures in the Great Lake as well. Grindylows and merfolk - a whole village of the latter. Seven had read about those two species and they could say without doubt or hesitation that they didn't want to meet either creature.

─────Seven's mind had wandered a bit. From what they had read, Grindylows seemed horrible. They despised humans - witches, wizards, Muggles, and any other type of human - yet they were tamed by merfolk and became pets. Seven shuddered as they remembered a quite dark piece of information: There was proof that they had eaten humans before. Although it wasn't legal, some people ate Grindylows.

Shaking off the bit of disturbance, Seven listened to what Lizzi had begun to say. She was asking about how they knew her family was made up of Muggles.

"I believe we discussed it when we first met?"

Seven could recall their conversation because they had explained their weird situation as a half-blood. Also because it had been a conversation with Lizzi, an amazing friend. They felt as though the two had bonded so quickly and so well. Seven was starting to feel that they wouldn't be so alone at Hogwarts. That had been the most scary part of going to Hogwarts. Being alone. No friends because their only friends were non-magical and went to a Muggle school. But Seven felt like they fit in. All they had to do was not mess everything up by saying something weird.

─────After Lizzi apologised for having a bad memory - which Seven didn't think was true - there was a sort of silence, the only noise was the sound of their feet trudging on the path by the Great Lake. Seven didn't know what to say, but they knew the silence could stretch on forever if they didn't speak. Now that would be awkward.

Then, to Seven's relief, Lizzi spoke. They were so glad that she wasn't as weird as they were. Well, she was weird, but in a good way.

"I'm definitely going to try out for Quidditch," that had been the thing they were most looking forward to. "I want to be a Keeper." Seven realised Lizzi may not know much about Quidditch. "Keepers guard the goals. Do you know the basics of Quidditch?"

Seven would be more than happy to tell Lizzi everything they knew about the sport. Maybe they were a tiny bit obsessed, but how could they not be? Quidditch was the best thing about Hogwarts. Their mother hadn't been on the team, but she had said it seemed like a fun experience full of teamwork and friendship and all that. Seven owned a copy of Quidditch Through the Ages, which they had practically memorized.

─────"Quidditch can be a bit dangerous, but it's great," they then launched into an explanation of the magical sport. "There are four balls. The Quaffle is a red, leather ball, and it's how you score points. The Chasers - that's just one of the 'jobs' you can have on a Quidditch team - throw it through one of the three goalposts belonging to the other team to score ten points. Keepers - that's what I want to be - try to block the Quaffle from going into the goalposts. There are also two Bludgers, which are smaller than Quaffles. They're black iron balls and they fly around, trying to hit players and knock them off their brooms. You can probably tell that Bludgers are what makes Quidditch dangerous. Now, each team has a couple of Beaters, who protect the rest of their team from getting hit by Bludgers. And, finally, we have the Golden Snitch. It's a golden ball the size of a walnut and has silver wings. It's the smallest ball, and Seekers have to catch it. Once they do, the game's over."

Seven had been talking way too much. Lizzi was probably half asleep. Why did they have to be so obsessed with Quidditch?

─────Seven nodded along as Lizzi recounted what they had told her. She had gotten everything right. Either Seven was good at explaining or she was good at making sense out of weird stuff. Most likely the latter.

"I want to be a Keeper because..." Seven paused, "Because being a Seeker seems boring. You're just searching for this tiny object the entire time. Honestly, I don't think I could be a Beater. I'd be way too scared of missing the Bludger and getting hit in the face. Kind of the same deal with Chasers. So, that leaves the Keeper. It doesn't come with that much action, but enough for things to be interesting."

Now they had to answer Lizzi's second question. Luckily, they knew a lot about the subject and could answer with a nice amount of excitement.

"Well, that's not the only way a game can end. It's also possible if both team Captains agree to end the match. That's really rare though, because of pride and all that. The longest Quidditch game lasted for half a year! The Seekers of both teams must've been really bad because eventually, the two Captains just decided to end the game. The members of the teams weren't playing nonstop, of course. Every few hours, they got swapped out with other people."