An idea PV Irina Shevel Finished

Irina ran up the stairs to the owlery, taking the steps 2 at a time. 'Why do I have to have such short legs!' she thought with frustration. Her heart was beating fast and her breath came in fast pants, but not because she was running . . . well, partially because she was running. She was desperate to reach the owlery and see her best friend, Mahlioz.

The morning before, Irina had been in her dorm, making the rare choice to stay inside and read a book. An owl had flown through the open window and perched on her bed, dropping a letter in her lap. Normally, Irina only had letters from her parents, and even then she recieved them at breakfast! Her curiosity rose and she reached forward excitedly, grabbing the letter and hastily scanning it. Her eyes hurriedly flicked back and forth, a smile getting bigger and bigger on her face.
Once she had finished reading, Irina leapt from the bed and whooped loudly, spinning in circles and punching the air with excitement. "I'M GOING TO SEE MAHLIOZ IN THE SUMMEEEER!" She yelled in delight. It took her a few minutes to calm down and think straight, finally making the decision to write a hasty owl so that her best friend wouldn't be worried ('Knowing Mahlioz, she'll be counting down the seconds for a return owl . . . probably in the library.')

Dear Mahlioz,

YES, YES, YES, YES, YES!

Irina

Now, she was running as fast as she could up to the owlery, desperate to see her friend and make the plans. As she ran, Irina thought back and paused, realising she should probably have written more in response - she had never been much of a writer though. Mahlioz was hugely conscientious and bound to be worried about Irina's decision. If she sensed even the slightest amount of doubt or negativity, she might begin to doubt their friendship, or even worse, herself.
Since Irina had started at Hogwarts, her one true friend had been found in Mahlioz, since their emotional (and in Irina's case, robe-sodden) meeting at the lake. Mahlioz had been the first person she had opened up to, the first person to understand her, the first person to go on an actual adventure with! She was the closest friend Irina had ever had and now, here she was, inviting her over during the summer!

Finally, she burst through the door, red-faced, clutching Mahlioz's letter and beaming broadly.

Mahlioz had gotten to the owlery early, around quarter to, just out of pure excitement. She hadn't really meant to, but for once, she had been running so fast that she had made it up the west tower in record time. And for good reason... not even half an hour after she had sent her letter to Irina, yesterday, an owl had somehow made its way to the library where she'd been reading to deliver an answer. And it only contained five words, all "YES". So Mahlioz assumed her friend was just as enthusiastic as she was about this idea.

The Slytherin had decided to spend the time she had on her own petting the owls and enjoying the view from the tower. The owls made her think about the gift she'd gotten from Reltyl back in October, for her birthday. A gift card to the Magical Menagerie in Diagon Alley. Ever since, she had been wondering what pet to get.
At first, the choice had been obvious: owls were the best. But then she had met Chaksa, Rose Moon's cat, in March, and she'd considered cats. And then, after some more research, she couldn't decide between a ferret or a rabbit. And pygmy puffs were cute too. How could she choose?? The summer holidays were coming too quickly!

Mahlioz's thoughts were soon interrupted. A few minutes before 3, the door behind her burst open and Irina, armed with the smile that almost always lit up her face, basically fell into the owlery from her momentum. It seemed the girl had also been running. Mahlioz grinned back at her, rushing over.
"I'm so glad you came!" she exclaimed, sitting down on one of the many window sills jutting out of the walls. "And that you liked the idea... I was worried you'd be too busy." Irina seemed like exactly the kind of person who would have a million things going on during the holidays. She was too interesting to be doing nothing at all. "So... I'm thinking you could come over for five or six days?"

Her mind was already buzzing with all the things they could do. "I have two siblings," she added quickly, wondering how they hadn't already talked about their families before. "Reltyl is my younger one, they're eleven, and they're a squib. They'll probably be spending most of their time hanging out with their friends. And Hyltwis is my older sister, who's nearly 15, and she goes to Beauxbatons. I think she'll leave us alone."
She paused for breath, looking at her friend. "When could you come over? We'll be doing lots of things in early July, so that wouldn't work, but apart from that anything else works. And we could even go to London together one day? To go to Diagon Alley and get school supplies for next year? I can't believe we're going to be in second year!"

It was incredibly rare that she spoke this much, but she was too excited to do anything less. And now that she had started, she couldn't stop; she ended up accidentally asking the question she hadn't meant to. "Hey, is it okay if I call you my best friend?" Realizing what she'd said, she suddenly stopped speaking. She hoped that was a normal thing to ask. Maybe it had been obvious, and it was stupid, asking such a question? Or maybe she had read into things too much and Irina didn't see her that way? Or maybe you could only have one best friend, and the Gryffindor already had one. Mahlioz could only hope that she hadn't made a big mistake in asking such a small question, and she awaited the answer apprehensively.

Irina burst into the owlery, almost tripping over the final step. She looked up to see Mahlioz, a large smile gracing her face. 'She looks really pretty when she smiles.' Irina thought happily, walking over to sit next to her friend on a window sill.

She openly scoffed at Mahlioz's suggestion that Irina would be too busy. "I'm so desperate to come I would absolutely make space for this. 5 or 6 days sounds completely perfect!" Privately, she would have loved to stay longer, but the rare voice of logic reminded her that she did have other stuff on, and Mahlioz probably did too!
She was very interested to hear about the Slytherin's siblings. She remembered Mahlioz mentioning Reltyl when they first met Jordan, but she was curious to learn more about both them and their older sister Hyltwis. 'Woah, Beauxbatons! That's pretty cool. I don't reckon I'd have enough elegance to go there.'
Why didn't you go there? Why come here? Don't get me wrong, if you even think about leaving I might just pack myself in your trunk and go with you. But why go to different schools?"

As Mahlioz discussed plans and dates, Irina felt her brain becoming fizzy and excited. She had been invited to someone's house. Not just that, but a super awesome someone's house. She'd had friends in her previous schools sure, but they had never really felt close. It had always seemed fake or temporary. Not like this.
"Well, I'll check with my parents but I think I'm free August 2nd! My Uncle Garrow and Aunt Liz are round on the 1st so that's the earliest I can get away."

When Mahlioz suggested meeting up in London she gave a loud squeal, jumping from the window sill and giggling as she span in excited circles.
"Yes, yes, yes, YES! You can show me your new pet and we can get ready for the new school year and we can be Second Years together and I CANNOT WAIT!"
She stopped spinning, panting heavily as she tried to regain her breath, feeling as though her face was going to split in half from smiling so widely.

She was about to ask what dates they would meet up for Diagon Alley, when Mahlioz asked, "Hey, is it okay if I call you my best friend?"

Irina felt more dizzy now than after she had stopped spinning in circles. She stared, mouth open at Mahlioz for a second as her brain tried to catch up with what she'd just heard (the spinning had caused it to slow down quite a bit).
"You . . . you want me to be your . . . your best friend? Her heart was quietly erupting, beating fast. Her brain meanwhile was simultaneously crying and celebrating with absolute delight. After the crazy emotions and confusions had died down, Irina looked at Mahlioz and saw the apprehension etched across her face. Immediately, she sat down on the window sill, giving her best friend the biggest hug she could. "Course you can bestie," she muttered, slightly muffled as her face was pressed into Mahlioz's shoulder.

After a little while, she pulled away, looking into Mahlioz's green eyes and smiling in an uncharacteristicly shy manner. She had never had a best friend before. And coupled in with the excitement and surprise and delight was a small feeling of satisfaction. Cause really, she would have wanted no one else to be her best friend, and now that it wa spoken, it just seemed right.

In a spur of euphoria, she grasped Mahlioz's hands and pulled her from the window sill, spinning once more in circles, giggling and laughing. Soon, she got too dizzy to think and she toppled to the floor, still giggling. "Oh no," she gasped, I think I've got a case of never ending laughter." And she rolled onto her back, chuckling uncontrollably.

Mahlioz probably had to go to the hospital wing, because she very literally could not stop grinning. Try as she might, she was just too happy to do anything else. "Let's make that six," she answered, "I'll take as much as I can get." She was already imagining all that they would do - they would have six days to themselves! She couldn't wait to show Irina all around her neighborhood and whisper to her when they were going to bed just like the characters in her books did at sleepovers. She, herself, had never been to a sleepover before, and now she was about to spend a week with someone over!

All of these thoughts about showing her friend around her home made her wonder whether Irina also knew what it was like to be a muggle. These things were not talked about often, in general, because they were touchy topics. But Irina knew Mahlioz enough to know she wouldn't be purposefully mean. "Hey, can I ask... well, I'm a half-blood, so I kind of know about both muggles and wizards. What are you?"
Mahlioz laughed and felt her heart warm when her friend said she would pack herself into her suitcase if she ever thought of leaving. Irina's question about Hyltwis was a good one. "The answer's actually kind of boring, actually - it's just because her first instance of magic was in France. Of course, my family probably could have figured something out to get her to go to Hogwarts, but Beauxbatons wasn't that difficult anyway, and Hyltwis loved it as soon as she saw it for the first time. Besides, she would never come back now, she has a girlfriend."

Mahlioz wondered whether the Gryffindor's excited energy was contagious, because she was filled with the urge to squeal out in joy. "Okay, August the second it is then! If your parents approve, of course." They could go swimming together and stay up late together and annoy Reltyl together and eat ice cream together and- Come on, brain, shut up already. As much as she wanted to keep imagining, her friend was here right now so she should take advantage of that.
"I'm so EXCITED!" she exclaimed. Though she didn't show it with the same enthusiasm as Irina did - mostly because she was an introvert, and was more used to silently rooting for her favorite characters as opposed to yelling out from sheer joy - she was just as thrilled as her friend. And not only for the week they'd be spending together... in less than three months, they'd be back again, but this time as second years. Second years. With a pet and new equipment and books and everything! They'd get to boss first years around!

Her happiness turned into dread when she asked the question she hadn't been meaning to. Irina, who had been spinning around (this was so normal Mahlioz hadn't completely registered it until now), looked up at her like she'd just sprouted wings. Oh no oh no what have I done I've just ruined everything I shouldn't have said anything- her brain was telling her as her heart beat harder than it ever had before, as Irina found her voice and repeated Mahlioz's request.
To the Slytherin's endless relief, though, the other girl got up, sat down on the window sill next to her again, and hugged her. The two had hugged countless times before, but this was different. Mahlioz's doubts finally quieted. Her heart felt like it was explosing. And... it was their first hug as best friends. Best friends. The phrase sounded foreign to her, just like 'friends' had a year ago. And now... everything had changed.

Irina pulled back from the hug after a few moments and the two girls looked at each other, smiling more, somehow, than they ever had before. The Gryffindor's eyes, Mahlioz realized, were the same color as the Great Lake - a beautiful green-blue color, like the depths of the water where the mermaids lived. Fitting, actually, since their first meeting had been when Irina had fallen into the lake. How had she not already noticed the magnificence of her friend's eyes?
The staring at each other in amazed joy only lasted for a few seconds, though, before Irina pulled Mahlioz up and started spinning around in circles. Mahlioz had done this once before, with Reltyl. But as with everything else, it was completely different with Irina. The girl was laughing and spinning and giggling, and Mahlioz could not help but do the same. They were spinning faster and faster and laughing harder and harder and the two both ended up falling to the ground in a heap of giggles. And they laughed and laughed and laughed. And Mahlioz wished this moment would never end.

"Hey, can I ask... well, I'm a half-blood, so I kind of know about both muggles and wizards. What are you?"

Irina was happy to find that Mahlioz asked the question freely, with no shame or embarresment - she didn't think it should be a question someone should be ashamed of answering. 'But then again,' she thought, 'I have had no reason to be embarrassed, so I can't truly imagine how it might feel to not want to answer the question.'

"I'm half-blood too! But both of my parents are half-blood, so my knowledge on the muggle world comes from my Uncle's wife. I know a little bit! Aunt Liz helped me take this queez thing? I can't remember what it's called but apprently I'm ENFP-A. I don't actually know what that means though. Any ideas?"

"Woooah, your sister has a girlfriend!? That's pretty grown-up. How long have they been dating? Is she nice?"
She silently realised that being nosy about her friend's sister's girlfriend was probably a bit weird. But none of Irina's siblings (or Irina herself) had ever dated anyone. Heck, Irina had never even liked anyone! Not in that way . . .

As Mahlioz mentioned her getting her parent's approval, Irina waved her hand through the air in an unbothered way. "Don't worry bout that. Soon as I sent you a return owl, I sent one to them too! They sent Artemis this morning saying yes!" She grinned sheepishly. "I was pretty excited when you told me. All I need to do is send a return owl with the dates and details."

As she span Mahlioz in circles, laughing and giggling, her mind was twirling too, filled with joy and surprise and elation. She had never had a best friend before! And what's more, she would never have expected Mahlioz to become her best friend. Mahlioz had origionally appeared to be the type of person that would not enjoy being around someone as loud and crazy as Irina - but she had been wrong! Mahlioz was such a good friend, she had been willing to try things that Irina enjoyed doing, despite the fact she might not have enjoyed them! She had even helped Irina with one of her Loud Brain moments, something only her family had been able to help her with in the past.

As the two girls laughed on the floor, Irina hiccuped herself into quiet chuckles. Her ribs ached and her eyes swam with happy tears. She looked at Mahlioz and gave an enormous grin, wanting to remain amid the owl poo and ink stains forever.
She sat herself up and crossed her legs, opposite Mahlioz. "Okay, so . . . what are we gonna do? At your house I mean. I can almost feel the plans buzzing off of you. Unload 'em! I wanna hear all your ideas!"

Though she hadn't expected any less of her friend, she was still very relieved when Irina answered her question without a hint of annoyance or shame. It turned out she was half-blood as well, though in quite a different way - she was brought up more like a wizard-born, since both her parents, though half-bloods, were wizards.
At the mention of the quiz, Mahlioz laughed. "I've heard of it before - Reltyl had a phase where they were obsessed with those types of quizzes. I think it's called an MBTI quiz or something like that? I don't know much about it, except that I'm an INTJ-T." Which was nearly completely the opposite of Irina. Opposites attracted, she guessed? "I'm sure you could ask Reltyl when you come over though. It sounds cool, anyway." She'd never really been into computer stuff - that was Reltyl's thing. She'd always had her nose too stuck in books to care very much.

"Yeah, her name is Erin." Mahlioz didn't really find that it was very grown-up, at least in her opinion. She'd never really liked romance books, so maybe that had something to do with it, but in those she'd inevitably read, people kept splitting up and being jealous of each other and it was all very unnecessarily complicated. That didn't mean she didn't want someone special like that in her life - she just felt like waiting until you were old enough to know how to deal with all of it was a better idea.
"It's been like two years now. And yeah, she's really nice! I think you guys'd like each other. I hope we get to see her, Hyltwis is less bossy when she's around." She grinned. Though it may have been a bit nosy on Irina's part, Mahlioz didn't blame her for being curious. Though she wouldn't admit it, when her sister first started dating she was the same way. The only people she knew who were together were adults.

"That's awesome!" she exclaimed when her friend admitted she'd already gotten her parents' approval. "So... you'd take floo powder on the second over to my house-" just saying that made her giddy with excitement "-and then you'd sleep over for six days. Then, at the end of that, we could take floo powder to Diagon Alley, do our shopping, get my pet, and then say goodbye there!" She was kind of proud she'd come up with that herself. "What do you think?"

After having spun around from the joy of both their new plan and the fact that they were now best friends, the two sat in the mess that was the owlery, grinning their heads off at each other, before Irina asked her to tell her all of her plans for what they'd do. Mahlioz was happy to oblige. "I have to show you around Aberdeen! I mean, it's Scotland, just like here, so it's cold, but it's still awesome and there's beaches! We could go swimming and get ice cream, and try to understand how Reltyl's video games work, and read books together-" She paused. "Ooooor not, if we don't want to. And we could build a treehouse! And sneak around spying on my siblings! And we should have a drawing contest. And I can show you my old school! And there's a forest near my house that we could explore too. And we could build stuff out of cardboard! I have a whole collection at home from before, if my parents didn't get rid of it." She finally stopped to take a breath.

"It's been like two years now. And yeah, she's really nice! I think you guys'd like each other. I hope we get to see her, Hyltwis is less bossy when she's around."

Irina snorted with laughter whilst nodding her head in agreement. "Yup, I get that! Idril doesn't boss us around as much when her friends are over!" Idril wasn't the most annoying sibling, in fact they were pretty close! But it did follow that as the older sibling, Irina and Kay (especially Kay) did get bossed around a tad.

Irina listened as Mahlioz laid out the plan. She was pretty impressed her friend had managed to take something so exciting and chaotic and place it into a logical and easy plan - 'Yup, would not have been able to do that by myself.'
"It sounds perfect! In fact, carrying on this organised streak, I'll write another letter to my parents and confirm the details." She grabbed a spare bit of parchment and a (slightly broken) quill from her pocket before walking over to a windowsill and writing a quick letter.
She jotted down all essential information before signalling a school owl and tying the ink splattered letter to it's leg. She looked pensievely out the window at the receding owl, thinking, 'Hmm, I doubt they're even going to be able to read that!'

The grin remained on Irina's face as she listened to Mahlioz listing out a bunch of stuff they were gonna do together. At every new idea, Irina's imagination exploded with images of the pair having fun together - why did it have to be so long until the holidays!? Her grin was trickled into a giggle as the list kept going. Mahlioz finally stopped to take a breath and Irina took a moment to appreciate how excited Mahlioz must be - Irina knew how little she liked long speeches so giving one this long meant a lot to her.
"I think that every single thing you just said sounds perfect! I've always wanted to build a treehouse! And you know I'm alreayd in as soon as the word 'exploring' is mentioned!"
'We're gonna have trouble deciding which of these to do! They all sound awesome,' she thought with delight. As far as she was concerned, the mere idea of all of thse incredible activities was enough to get her squealing with joy.
"I do have a question though; what's a 'Vi-dee-oh.' Some kind of muggle thing?'

Irina leant against the wall and sighed, the buzzing excitement finally smoothing out. She looked down at her watch, trying to decipher the time between the cracks in the glass. To her surprise, it was nearly 4!
She pushed herself from the wall and brushed herself down, aware that her clothes were probably covered in dust, ink stains . . . and worse.
"Well, I need to go and check to see if I've finished all my homeowork for tomorrow. I probably need to start heading down. Wanna come with?"

Irina has left the thread

Mahlioz had shared all about her own siblings, but after hearing Irina say something about someone named Idril, she realized she knew nothing about her best friend's. Sure, it wasn't as important, seeing as she wasn't going to be seeing them over the summer, but she was still interested. Maybe they went to Hogwarts, and Mahlioz could meet them! She knew there were lots of families at the school, with siblings and cousins all over the place. Her friend Qrow was just one example. Mahlioz herself had a couple of cousins in Ravenclaw. She'd have to ask Irina at one point, but for now, they were too busy deciding what they would do over the summer.

Irina, having agreed with the plan the Slytherin had come up with, was now writing a letter to her parents to give them the details. Mahlioz decided to do the same, finding a quill some kid had left behind in the owlery and some parchment, and writing down what they had planned. It took her a little longer than it did her best friend, since she was trying to keep her decent-looking handwriting despite her excitement. But she finished after a few minutes, attached the letter to an owl, and grinned back at Irina as the bird flew off.

It seemed her kilometer-long list of things they could do had enchanted the Gryffindor just as much as it had her. The two girls couldn't stop smiling and giggling and squealing from excitement, which made Mahlioz feel slightly cheesy, but she didn't care in the least. "Oh," the Slytherin said with a laugh when Irina asked what a video was. She'd forgotten her friend had grown up only in the wizarding world.
"Yeah, it's, er... like a wizard picture, except it's a planned length and it's always the same thing. And you have to watch it on a thing called a screen. And there's usually sound too." She paused, hoping she'd explained correctly. "But I was saying video games, which are like interactive pictures. Reltyl loves them, and I think they're pretty cool, but I don't always understand them." She grinned. "I'm sure you would absolutely adore them."

Irina got up and dusted herself off, saying she had to check whether she'd finished her homework and asking if Mahlioz wanted to head down with her. With an excited nod, the Slytherin got up as well and followed after her. Irina seemed to have calmed down a little, but Mahlioz was still uncharacteristically giddy with excitement. Her mind was still racing with ideas and she didn't understand why it couldn't already be the holidays. But she followed her best friend anyway, with an everlasting grin on her face, as they descended back into the bustling life of Hogwarts.

Mahlioz has left the thread.