Finished Not you again PV

Music. It was a magical thing. It was one of the most beautiful creations of art. It has the power to heal our mind, body and soul by its soothing effect. It brings back fond memories from the past. It helps us connect with our inner self. It serves as a medium of self expression. It is the soul of life.

When Renelle thought about it, she could not understand how an assembly of sound and lyrics could trigger such intense emotions among humans. But maybe she didn’t need to understand it- just to enjoy it. While she might not be a very musical person herself, that did not mean she could not enjoy it. There was the two guitar lessons given by a weirdo pushy musician friend of her parents, but apart from that, she had about as much musical experience as the owls in Magical Menagerie. And not the nice ones. The annoying Screech Owls who took their name way too literally.

But the Ravenclaw had decided to begin her musical journey on this particular day, perhaps as a product of too much spare time. As she headed down the hall to the rehearsal room of Hogwarts (this place really had just everything), the girl briefly wondered what was going to do once she got there. Maybe she could find a guitar, and see if she still remembered how to hold one first. Yes. That seemed like a solid plan.

Finally arriving upon the heavy oak doors of the ‘room of music’, Renelle cautiously pushed open the door. She really wasn’t exactly sure if she was in the right place, and the last thing she wanted was to relive the sheer embarrassment of bursting into what she thought was an abandoned room, just to discover there was a class taking place inside. Cringing just from the memory of the experience she wished she could forget, the girl peeked into the room.

It was lucky that she had thought to check, because Renelle discovered that there was, in fact, someone there. In the middle of the room, in fact, sitting at a giant piano. As she stood there awkwardly, wanting to leave yet fearing that any movement would alert the person to the presence of an intruder, the student- who appeared to be a Hufflepuff girl- started playing the piano. She was no expert of pianos, but supposed the music was quite good.

Honestly, she was surprised that the other girl had not noticed her already; she must have been really immersed— ‘in the zone’, as some would say. Deciding to keep it that way, Renelle gently took a step back into the corridors, intending to slip away unnoticed. However, the universe was not on her side that day, and just as the girl was attempting to leave, a thunderous 'CRASH!' echoed throughout the room. Cursing silently, Renelle peered hopefully at the Hufflpuff. It was a long shot, but maybe she had an earpiece in or something?

Interacting with @Michelle Brown

6:45 pm Rehearsal room

Word Count 287

Interacting with @ Renelle Dalton

Of course, Michelle should've known that nothing ever goes right for her. Fate had just decided that it permanently didn't want to side with Michelle. Whenever she enjoyed anything, it had to be ruined. Just when she had thought that nothing could ruin this perfect moment, something did.

A loud crash echoed through the large room. The sound wasnt so loud in itself, but the big room made it echo so much that it sounded three times louder than it should have. She stopped playing, startled. Her flow of music, her chain of emotions, and her rhythm all were broken. This was definitely some person trying to what, close the door?

The Hufflepuff turned her head around to see what was the cause of this disruption, with a neutral but kind of surprised and startled look on her face. She had thought that things were bad enough already, but again, she got greeted by an unpleasant shock.
The person who had interrupted her during one of her best moments again was a dark haired Ravenclaw girl, who was a first year, just like her. She had met this girl once before. Their last meeting was in the courtyard, when the Ravenclaw had bumped into her, ruining her painting.The conversation had ended with both of them having a grudge against each other, and Michelle was shocked to see her here.
She somehow managed to maintain her face expressions to seem like she just didn't care, and spoke in a calm tone:
"Um... Hello???"
She wasn't going to lose her calm this time. She had to stay composed and handle her emotions. Their last meeting had made Michelle burst out in anger and say things she didn't mean to. She wasn't gonna let this happen again.

The Hufflepuff almost immediately turned her head toward the Renelle. Oh well. There was little chance that such as thunderous noise could have went unnoticed, and it wasn’t like this was a very big deal. Everyone knocked stuff over sometimes, right? Figured she could just say sorry and leave, returning for her musical journey another day, the dark-haired girl opened her mouth, preparing to do just that.

However, the moment the Ravenclaw caught sight of the piano girl’s face, she went pale as a ghost, and took a sharp intake of breath. Hastily ducking down and pretending to busy herself with checking that the poor tuba she had knocked to the floor earlier was okay, she furiously wondered how her luck could simply be so bad. There were probably more than a thousand student in this school, and she simply had to come across the one person she had wronged?

Karma was indeed real, and it was coming for her.

Cringing at the memory of her outburst to a poor innocent girl whose painting she had ruined, Renelle straightened up slowly, still not meeting the Asian girl’s eyes. To this day, she had not been able to understand her behaviour that evening, and had pushed it to the back of her mind long ago— after all, it wasn’t like they would meet again, was it? How wrong she was.

“Um.. Hello.” Renelle’s gaze briefly flickered toward the Hufflupuff, and she hazily wondered if it was possible that she did not remember their previous encounter. It had been quite late after all, maybe the girl was so exhausted she couldn’t recall anything the next day? Nope, judging from her barely maintained expression, she definitely recognised Renelle. Yippee.

Taking a tentative step forward, she tried to decide on her next course of action. Asking the girl how she was? The weather? Her piano skill? All of those seemed a bit out of the blue and way too weird, so Renelle chose the most obvious option.

“So.. sorry about the noise.” her voice came out rather unsure. “I guess I’ll just leave you to your piano-ing now?” Looking back at forth between the door and the girl who seems less than happy to see her, Renelle wondered if she ought to wait to see if the other first year had anything to say.

Interacting with @Michelle Brown

6:45 pm Rehearsal room

Word Count 312

Interacting with @ Renelle Dalton

The girl hesitantly replied to her greeting. She noticed that the girl was trying to avoid her gaze. Michelle couldn't help but notice that the Ravenclaw was eager to get out of this awkward situation. “So.. sorry about the noise...I guess I’ll just leave you to your piano-ing now?” The girl's voice was unsure, again hinting at her wish to get out of the situation, making Michelle almost feel sorry for what she was about to say.
"Wait.... Tell me about yourself first"
This act was completely directed by her intrusive thoughts. She had done this without thinking, but how would she have gotten time to think when the idea of them meeting again never even came to her? But what she did made sense, she reassured herself.
Yes, she did want to get back to playing the piano, but since their last interaction had ended so badly and they had somehow crossed paths again, she figured she'd make something good out of this one. She was the introverted type, but also a peacemaker. She didn't have any friends, and she didn't want enemies. And if they would continue to be hate each other, at least Michelle would know the girl's name. There was nothing bad that could come out of this situation, she figured.
She knew she had probably made the girl more awkward, but did she care? no. All she wanted was for her Hogwarts years to go smoothly without any enemies or grudges. Those type of things only bring trouble for you: she had learned this way back when she was eight.

Michelle wondered how the girl would reply. Would she tell Michelle about herself? or would she like to know about Michelle first? Should Michelle have said that? Probably not. She should've just let the girl go, hoped that they wouldn't meet again and continue with the piano. But she had started a conversation with the girl.
'참 잘 됐다' ⁽¹⁾ she thought to herself.

(1)=[Translation: Good job (in a sarcastic way), Romanized Pronounciation: (cham jal dwetta)]

Renelle really wasn’t sure how to respond to the girl’s question. She blinked in surprise, then stared at her for a few few seconds, as if stupefied. Well, she certainly didn’t beat around the bush, did she? She’d never met someone as direct and blunt as the Hufflepuff before- it was refreshing, yet kind of weird at the same time.

“Tell you about myself?” she repeated unnecessarily. “Umm.. “ Shaking her head as if to clear her thoughts, Renelle opened her mouth to answer, then closed it again. Sorry, but it was really hard to answer that question on the spot! Who even just asked someone who they’d had a yelling match with a few days earlier to introduce themselves out of the blue?

The element of surprise worked, though, because the brunette didn’t even think of just ignoring her and walking away. After some time, she finally gathered herself up enough to say, “My name is Renelle?” Damn, that came out as more of question than she’d intended. “I mean, my name is Renelle.”

Why was this girl even attempting with the get-to-know-yous? From their brief interactions, Renelle had not gotten any social butterfly vibes from her, which made it difficult to imagine the reason behind her sudden change of behaviour. Though who knows, maybe she’d read her all wrong- it wasn’t like she was an expert on this kind of stuff, either.

At any rate, Renelle definitely was not fond of where this conversation was going. All she’d wanted was to perhaps try her hand at the guitar and perhaps kill anyone walking by’s hearing, but now she was sucked into this void of awkwardness and half-hearted greetings, which had not been on her agenda that day.

But if she was already here, maybe she ought to make an effort. “And… What’s your name?” Not that Renelle particularly cared, but it was a standard inquiry. And it would be much more convenient to not keep thinking of the Hufflepuff as ‘the girl’ or ‘piano girl’ inside her head.

Interacting with @Michelle Brown

6:45 pm Rehearsal room

Word Count 446

Interacting with @Renelle Dalton

Michelle was trying to make eye contact with the Ravenclaw. She wanted to establish that she was trying to have a conversation. The Ravenclaw's reaction of surprise, or say shock, was plainly visible on her face. Even if it wasn't, Michelle had always been the one to read people's faces and know exactly how they felt. The Hufflepuff made out that the girl was shocked and was probably feeling awkward. Michelle longed to say that the feeling was mutual.
Why did Michelle land herself in this situation? She didn't know. How this halfhearted conversation was going to end was worrying Michelle.
“Tell you about myself?” The Ravenclaw girl repeated. There was a hint of unsurety in her tone. “Umm.. " The other girl seemed nervous to Michelle, or maybe it was just the element of surprise that had had got the best of her.
“My name is Renelle?” That was a question.
“I mean, my name is Renelle.” She answered her own question.

Michelle found the Ravenclaw's - or let's use Renelle's - tone of unsurety kind of weird. Why would the girl question her name? There was something going on with her. Like damn, Michelle wasn't a social butterfly herself but at least she knew how to talk. Okay, Michelle now tried to keep track of her table about this girl that she had saved in the back of her head - Renelle didn't know how to walk, had anger issues, was awkward and now recently added - unsure. This table was a lot to keep up with.

Michelle couldn't say that she wasn't an awkward person herself. But for now, her biggest question to herself was why she started such a stupid conversation with a person who said that she didn't belong in Hufflepuff, had shouted at her, bumped into her, and also ruined her painting. Why would she talk to a person she was shouting at a few days back?

“And… What’s your name?” Renelle asked the Hufflepuff. Michelle noted inside her head - Renelle wasn't making efforts for this conversation. But then she reminded herself - she shouldn't have started this conversation in the first place.
"I'm Michelle. Nice to meet you"
Michelle smiled. It was genuine; She loved to smile. Somehow she hadn't smiled much here at Hogwarts. Michelle then stood up and offered her hand for a handshake.

"So like...do you have any hobbies or something?"
Michelle was about to ask for Renelle's age, but that seemed quite pointless, so she decided she may be able to lead the conversation to music, painting, reading or maybe anything else she enjoyed.
She was making efforts in a conversation after a long time.

For the first time since they’d met, the Hufflepuff girl- who’d just introduced herself as Michelle- smiled. It was a really genuinely-looking smile, which creeped her out a bit. Not that she thought the girl couldn’t be nice, but so far, Michelle had been kind of expressionless, at least in Renelle’s opinion. Though now that she thought about it, she supposed she hadn’t really given her any reason to be anything other than that.

“Uh, yeah. Nice to meet you too, I guess.” How had the interaction suddenly taken such a drastic turn? She wasn’t entirely sure, but decided to just go with it. Letting go of the door, the Ravenclaw went forward to shake the girl’s hand, albeit a bit awkwardly. Really, who even shook hands in this day and age?

“And as for hobbies… not really.” The vague answer made Renelle feel a bit bad, but in her defence, she had never claimed to have any wish in making random conversation, nor had she started the one going on at the moment. Besides, what she said had some element of truth in it.

However, it seemed that she was not going to be able to leave anytime soon, and now that the initial shock was over, Renelle wasn’t feeling quite as uncomfortable. Whenever she met someone new, they always assumed that she was terrified of talking to people or something similar, while that was simply not true. She just hated it.

At any rate, if she was going to be chatting with this girl for a while, there was no point to be on her feet the entire duration of their meeting. Shutting the door behind her, Renelle took a few tentative steps toward Michelle. “Hey, do you wanna sit down somewhere?”

Interacting with @Michelle Brown

6:45 pm Rehearsal room

Word Count 312

Interacting with @Renelle Dalton

The Ravenclaw's response didn't faze Michelle one bit: She didn't expect Renelle to suddenly turn her tone sweet as Michelle had done.
Michelle hadn't really shown her friendliness to anyone at Hogwarts yet. Maybe because she didn't have any interaction with anyone besides Renelle - hopefully yet. She wasn't really a social person, but that sometimes varied with her mood. She had stupidly started this conversation earlier, probably making the other girl feel uncomfortable, as she was right now.

“Uh, yeah. Nice to meet you too, I guess.” And with that the girl came forward to shake her hand, rather awkwardly. Michelle tried to maintain her composure, to not let her anger on herself show. God, she really did love creating trouble for herself.
After giving an expected dry reply to Michelle asking the Ravenclaw's hobbies, Renelle took a few steps towards her, asking her
“Hey, do you wanna sit down somewhere?”

Michelle didn't really know how to reply to that. Like yes, she would like to sit down, but in what sense? Was the girl implying that they should sit there in the rehearsal room, or go outside and sit down? These kind of situations really confused Michelle. What was she supposed to say?

"Yeah, actually. I was about to ask you the same" Michelle listened to her intrusive thoughts yet again. "What about the courtyard?"
'기똥찬 생각이네 '⁽¹⁾ . She could punch herself right now for saying this. The courtyard? The place they had met for the first time? Besides that, was it necessary for the situation to be so that Michelle didn't even know if the girl wanted to sit in the rehearsal room or outside? She really did love to mess things up. She had probably given a valid reason for the girl to just walk away. "or nevermind, you suggest a place" She quickly tried to cover up her mistake. She didn't know why she said that they could sit in the courtyard. She usually didn't mess up coversations like this, what was wrong with her today?

(1)=[Translation: What a great idea]

In hindsight, Renelle really ought to have thought through her question before voicing it. At the time, asking the girl if she wanted to sit down had seemed perfectly normal, but really, who even just sat down in the middle of an empty room full of instruments, with someone they had just met? She’d always thought of herself as quite prudent, but maybe that was subject to change.

Thankfully, Michelle did not seem put off by the Ravenclaw’s lack of foresight, and continued to speak, suggesting that they take this conversation to the courtyard. Personally, Renelle wasn’t sure about the sensibility of this plan, what with their rocky history with the place. It wasn’t like she was the poster girl for thinking before talking, however, and decided to keep her thoughts to herself.

“Good idea.” Renelle shrugged. “I don’t really have a better idea, so let’s just go there.” She had no idea what they would even do when they got to the place, but they’d cross that bridge when they came to it. Take a walk? Sit on a tree? Reminisce about running paintings and tripping?

She took a few steps toward the doorway, looking back to see if Michelle was following. “Umm.. So let’s go, I guess.” Then, she turned around and walked out of the rehearsal room, where this rather strange encounter has just taken place.

Who knew? Renelle decided as she headed down to the courtyard. Maybe this would be the start of something new. And hopefully not weird.

Interacting with @Michelle Brown

Renelle has left the thread with Michelle. Hopefully.