The Start Of A New Chapter PV Renelle Dalton Closed

As Renelle headed down the Ravenclaw common room toward the Great Hall, she couldn’t help but marvel at the sheer magnificence of Hogwarts castle. True, she had heard from her parents, relatives, every witch and wizard who had been there, that Hogwarts was a place of the utmost beauty- all of them, even those from fairly well-off families, had been awestruck by the place when they first saw it.

Maybe she should have taken it more to heart, because it could have prepared her from what greeted her the earlier evening.

— flashback—

As Renelle walked into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for the first time, she couldn’t help but marvel at everything. The chandeliers, the intricate paintings, the— ghosts? There sure were a lot of them here. It would have been nice to have been given a heads-up by her parents, though she supposed it was certainly more interesting to find out this way.

Tuning out through what seemed like an endless speech, Renelle came to again when the sorting hat was bought out, and started singing. It wasn’t every day one saw a singing hat, after all, even if it was kind of ugly.

Alexa (who Renelle had been trying and failing to avoid ever since they got off the train) was one of the first students to be called. As she watched the dark-haired girl go, she breathed a huge sigh of relief. She would be sorted in Hufflepuff or Gryffindor, one of the lovey-dovey houses, and they’d never see each other again. What a—

“Ravenclaw!”

She gaped at the spot where the stupid hat bellowed out Alexa’s future house for all to hear. Then blinked, dumbfounded.

Ravenclaw? For Little Miss Let’s Talk And Play Games And Be Best Friends? Her? As Renelle continued staring at the damn hat, Alexa took her place at the Ravenclaw table. One by one, the names trickled by, students being sorted, until at last it came to—

“Renelle Dalton!”

The rest of what happened was quite long and frustrating, but long story short, she got sorted into Ravenclaw. Just like Alexa. Slowly, the brunette rose up and trudged toward the table second from the left.

@Alexa Hale

Alexa could not have been happier to be in Ravenclaw. She never thought of herself as smart, but she realized that Ravenclaw wasn’t necessarily only for book smart people. She was sure that she would find why she was put into Ravenclaw soon enough. After all, the Sorting Hat was never wrong.

After a few names went by, it was finally Renelle’s turn to be sorted. And when the Sorting Hat called out Ravenclaw, Alexa was sure she was clapping the loudest. As Renelle came to the table, Alexa stopped herself from hugging he other girl, but she had a wide grin on her face.

“We’re both in Ravenclaw! I mean I knew you would be but I’m so glad that I am too! I mean we could even share dorms! It’s going to be so fun here at Hogwarts.”

Renelle looked a little dazed, but Alexa assumed that it was due to the atmosphere. Renelle was quite introverted and being in such a social setting with so many people might be uncomfortable for her. It was quite loud as nearly everyone was either introducing themselves or talking about their vacations.

Alexa worriedly turned towards Renelle, “Is this atmosphere too loud for you? I noticed that you aren’t very comfortable in overly social settings and you seem to be quite dazed.”

@Renelle Dalton

— flashback—

The excitedness with which Alexa welcomed her to the Ravenclaw table made Renelle feel even worse. The girl had been hanging on so tightly to them being sorted into different houses, like a lifeline, that she hadn’t even considered what would happen if that didn’t happen.

Sitting down next to Alexa, she looked around the Great Hall. No. This was her first time in Hogwarts, she had just been sorted into a reasonably nice house, and nothing and no one would ruin it for her. She would worry tomorrow.

“No, I’m fine!” She yelled back at Alexa (it was really the only way to make herself heard over all the chattering and introductions around them)."Hogwarts is nice!” And besides, she didn’t have social anxiety- there was no reason for Renelle to be dazed in a crowded place. It was really more social interactions she was allergic to.

The sorting came and went, and so did the feast. Feeling like she was going to throw up from excessive eating, Renelle staggered up, following the two Ravenclaw prefects who informed the first years to follow them to the Ravenclaw common room.

There was really no need to over describe the common room: it was blue, it was bronze, it had a nice view— But at the moment, Renelle had more urgent matters to focus on. Such as dorm selection.

@Alexa Hale

Alexa was overjoyed, and it was visible as she practically skipped all the way to the common room. To get inside the common room, they were to answer a riddle said by the eagle knocker on the door. As they went in, Alexa could see that it was beautifully decorated in blue and bronze, had many books in the shelves and a fantastic statue of Rowena Ravenclaw. The wall was also covered in stars and it looked like the night sky.

The Prefect gave them instructions on the dos and do nots in the common rooms and the dorms and finally moved onto the dorm selection. He said that the boys’ dormitories were on the left and the girls’ dormitories were on the right and that they should go and make themselves comfortable.

Alexa hurried to Renelle’s side. She knew that Renelle was the only person she had properly talked to, and she felt comfortable with her as well. She really did want to be dormmates with Renelle, so she decided to ask her as soon as she could.

“Hey Renelle! Would you want to be dormmates? I heard that it’s two per room, so we could go find a good room now since others are still searching for who to share a dorm with.”

@Renelle Dalton

Renelle was torn. On the one hand, she didn’t want to tell Alexa outright that she would rather jump into pond sludge than room with her; on the other hand, she would rather jump into pond sludge. She sighed, squeezing her eyes shut. There was really no good way to open this.

She opened her eyes again. No way around it. “Look.. Alexa.” she started. “I don’t know how to say this, but… “ Her voice faltered as she stared at the other girl’s face, so clearly hopeful and anticipative. Aw, man.

What was her problem? Renelle had never had any issue with shutting down peoples ideas, crushing their hopes before. Okay, maybe that came out wrong. The point was, she wasn’t sure why she couldn’t bring herself to just tell Alexa ‘No’, that they would never be best friends.

Was it because of how patient the other girl had been when she had initially been cold and foreboding? The hidden but present sharp intelligence that surfaced when playing get-to-know-you games? Or just how she hadn’t been afraid to speak her mind even if it might cost her a comfortable train ride?

Whatever it was, Renelle did like Alexa. But she just couldn’t let what had happened go.

“Are you sure you want to room with me?” she said slowly. “I mean, I might not be the best dorm mate. I.. uhh.. wake up really late. So if you try to wake me up, you might get late to class as well. And I’m… really messy? So our room would look like a disaster zone.”

Yep, that was what she was going to do.

@Alexa Hale

Renelle seemed to look indecisive. Perhaps she shouldn’t have assumed that they would share a room, Alexa thought. They did only meet that day and she could understand that it would be tough to be roommates that quickly. Being roommates meant that they had to see each other almost all the time, and they would have to be comfortable enough with each other to live together and adjust to one another.

So, when she heard Renelle talking about how she thought she would be a bad roommate, Alexa immediately relaxed. Renelle was thinking about how she might be a burden, but Alexa knew that that would never happen.

“Well, I’ll probably wake up later than you so we can both go late to class together.” Alexa grinned. She was quite the heavy sleeper, so she was more worried about if Renelle would have to wake her up.

“And as for the messiness, if I’m not comfortable with it, I’d probably clean it up myself. After all, the point of being roommates is to complement each other and become closer as friends, don’t you think? You would have to deal with my shortcomings and I with yours. But I can’t think of anyone else I would rather share a dorm with.” Alexa said honestly.

@Renelle Dalton

There was really no way around it, was there? Despite Renelle’s best efforts to turn Alexa down without hurting her feelings, sometimes things had to be a certain way. The other girl had seemed out off at all by her listening out all the ways she would be a terrible roommate, instead shrugging all of that off, evening going as far as to say that she couldn’t think of anyone else she would rather share a room with. True, that might not mean much, considering she was the only one Alexa had met so far, but still.

Weakly, she tried to make up some more excuses as to why they ought not to dorm together, but they came out shaky and unsure. As she looked into the face of what might have been, what might still be, one of her first real friends, both here in this new school and everywhere, Renelle suddenly couldn’t remember why she had been so quick to write her off at the slightest mistake. It wasn’t like everyone could be walking on tiptoes around her all the time, after all. She wasn’t the center of the universe.

Taking a deep breath, she looked Alexa right in the eyes. “I don’t think there’s anyone I would rather share a dorm with either.” Maybe she had been overly harsh and sensitive. It wasn’t like the girl had laughed to offend Renelle, nor was it in a malicious manner. There was literally no reason to take it to heart so much.

Even to herself, Renelle felt rather dramatic. Deciding to hate someone and then forgiving them less than a day later? Talk about being a drama queen. Thankfully, there was no one to listen to her internal dialogue or thoughts, or she would be extremely embarrassed.

But she was thankful for that experience, because it finally revealed to herself that she needed to improve a lot of aspects of herself. She had no idea what it was about Alexa Hale that brought out the best in people, but it was certainly there. And hopefully, she wouldn’t see just how flawed her new roommate was before the person in particular managed to make some changes.

Interacting with@Alexa Hale

----- Present time -----

Alexa climbed down to the Great Hall for breakfast, Renelle following close behind. They had both overslept slightly and were heading down to have a quick breakfast before they headed to their classes. The previous night wasn’t very eventful, they were both exhausted and slept pretty early on. Now all that was left to do was to tackle their first day at Hogwarts, starting with the classes.

As they neared the Great Hall, Alexa could smell the food before she could see it. They entered and saw that there were not too many students, so they sat at the Ravenclaw table. Alexa saw some of her classmates chatting excitedly about the first day of school. Alexa was extremely excited for her first lesson. They hadn’t received their schedule as of yet, so Alexa could only wonder what her first class would be.

She took a slice of bread and a few fruits as her breakfast. Her excitement overpowered her hunger and the adrenaline rush she was feeling diminished her hunger. She had her breakfast quickly and turned towards Renelle.

“So, what do you think our first lesson will be? I’m most excited for astronomy but I’m pretty sure that it won’t be first.”

@Renelle Dalton