Closed Blue Skies and Clear Days PV Roman Ashenvale and Nellie Lam

Roman looked at the frozen lake. It was a lovely sight, and the chill but calming weather and snow was definitely something a bit relaxing.
"I don't think I've been here before... I mostly just spend my time in the common room, my classes and the Library. It's definitely something nice to look at." He nervously looks around at other people as he walks alongside Dennis looking around at the other fellow students having fun. He was mostly an introvert, staying mostly to himself even amongst other Ravenclaw students. A walk in the outdoors was definitely calming his nerves but not fully making him stop thinking about his poor ability at understanding the spells. He knew his wand had a rare core within it and even throughout the Wandmaking books he had got from the Library he knew little to nothing about Troll Hair cores and what they mostly acted like. He continued to look around at the lake as he walked next to Dennis.
"It's nice to get out I guess, I'm usually just so committed to my schoolwork I don't really interact with others. I always feel like I'll go from no reputation to a bad reputation because of my very focused work ethic and well, how poorly I'm doing with spells. I don't like embarrassing myself, since I'm basically someone from a completely different world than this I feel if I don't figure out how everything works first I'll just be the butt of everyone's jokes." He nervously says not truly understanding what the point of being here was. He knew it was basically to spend some time relaxing from the pressure of his work but what was the point? Better to do everything first and rest once you're done with everything you need to do... right?

Winter was kind of the worst season. Nellie Lam was not a fan of the cold, even less so the snow. But, the castle air was at times simply too stale. It was time for some crisp, winter air. The young Hufflepuff made sure to bundle up with hat and gloves, coat, everything she needed. Today her hair hung free from her braids. She'd heard somewhere that leaving your hair in braids or in a ponytail all the time was unhealthy so she tried to give her hair breaks now and then. Today was one of this days.

The air stung almost as soon as it hit her face, but at least she was in her warmest coat and her scarf offered her neck and some of her face further protection from the elements. Making her way to the lake. she spotted Dennis's bright red hair nearly immediately. The corners of her mouth turned upwards in a smile and she redirected her steps his direction. Pausing just behind him, she crouched down to gather enough snow for a snow ball. She hadn't spotted the boy Dennis was talking to quite yet, or else she might not have thrown the snowball directly at her friend's back. Though whether she hit him or not was a different story.

Dennis frowned a bit. The more they were together, the further away they seemed. Dennis was outgoing but also pretty sharp at his homework. He also spent plenty of time in his studies and Nellie knew he spent a lot of time in the library, that was their favorite hangout spot. Thinking of Nellie, he wondered where his friend was, but the thought quickly vanished as Roman continued talking about school and homework. He definitely needed the fresh air, Dennis decided. His fellow Ravenclaw’s world got upended, shoved into a magical land, and a wizarding school and he just stayed in the library? Boy needed to get out something fierce.

Dennis nodded along however as they walked and enjoyed the clean air and the electric energy around them. Sometimes a walk was just a walk and there wasn’t much point in it other than taking a break. “You know. Often we get so obsessed with a problem that our sight becomes really narrow like looking through one of the astronomy telescopes,” the ginger pondered sagely. “If everything we do must be related to only one thing, don’t we miss the point of life and being here?” He asked. The 11 year old was on fire. Someone get him a cool drink of water.

Speaking of which, as he finished his platitude proudly, he felt something icy cold hit his back. He stumbled forward and looked wide eyed at Roman. Did he do something so sneaky? He didn’t think so. He whirled around, his cloak dancing behind him, wand at the read. He had a dancing feet charm with someone’s name on it for sure! Then he could pelt the poor dancing fool with as many snowballs as he wanted! His guard dropped however and a grin replaced his determined expression. “Nellie!” He yelled and waved with as much boyish enthusiasm as he could muster.

He scooped up some snow, hastily made a sorry excuse for a ball and flung it back at Nellie only for it to disappear in a loose cloud of powdered snow against the soft breeze. He laughed and turned to Roman, and beckoned Nellie over, “Roman! You have to meet my friend! This is Nellie Lam! The most studious Hufflepuff you are ever likely to meet! And Nellie this is Roman! A lad far more studious than I will ever be.” What a great chance for Roman to meet perhaps just the help he needed! And some say walks are pointless!

@Roman Ashenvale and @Nellie Lam

The instant Roman heard the snowball hit Dennis' back he panicked and jumped into the snow to avoid getting hit himself. The cold didn't bother him in the first place, he may has well been born to live in Winter, but he never really got into a snowball fight and was scared of something his father had told him about some kids hiding rocks in their snowballs. However, when he heard Dennis say that this Hufflepuff girl Nellie was his friend, he slowly got up. He slowly looks over at Nellie.
"Uh, hi. My name's Roman. Roman Ashenvale. Nice to meet you Nellie." Roman was still super nervous after what had just happened and a bit shaken up. However, he had always been curious about Hufflepuffs after he figured out that their main trait was supposed to be that they were incredibly Loyal instead of the other house's different traits of Gryffindor being Bravery, Ravenclaw being Scholarly and Slytherin being Ambition. He was nervous towards Nellie, but Dennis seemed to trust her so he'd stick to that.
"I guess you're friends with Dennis? I'm mostly just out with him to try and take a rest from my work. I don't really... get out much I guess you could say." Roman said to Nellie, wanting to know more about her and maybe about her friendship with Dennis. He kept how he was having troubles with his spells to himself, not wanting to embarrass himself. He was supposed to he a Ravenclaw, they were supposed to be the ones who were smart... right? It would be best if he didn't say anything that would make him look like a fool.
"So uh... you two seem like close friends. What kind of stuff do you two do together?" He says turning to look at Dennis, curious about whatever was going on.

The snowball had done exactly what she’d wanted it to do, hit her friend square in the back. She did a little celebratory fist pump in response, laughing brightly as she did. “Put your wand away, Denners, and fight me with snowballs!” Again she laughed, vaguely glad that her friend had not cast a spell without first seeing who was the culprit. His retaliation was met with a happily playful squeal as she shielded her face from the puff of snow.

The Hufflepuff had been ready to continue the play, but Dennis had other plans. Spotting Roman for the first time, her cheeks flushed a bright shade of pink. “Oh! Hi. I’m sorry. I didn’t see you there.” Nellie, struggling with her own brand of social anxiety, was mildly comforted by her closest friend’s presence. “Roman. That’s a great name. Not like Nellie.” Her unbound brown hair looked a bit wild, now, with snowflakes speckling her dark hair. There was something to be sad for the contrast of the white snow against her dark brown hair. She tucked a stray strand behind her ear as her attention settled on the unfamiliar boy as he spoke.

“Yeah, Dennis here is probably my closest friend. I don’t know if that’s true for him or not.” She shrugged, still smiling. “Um… we go looking for creatures and we tell each other stories.” She grinned at her friend before her attention returned to Roman. “What do you mean you don’t get out much? How come?” She looked thoroughly confused by the statement.

Roman nervously looks at Nellie as he is asked about why he doesn't get out very often.
"Well, I guess you could say it's cause I don't really feel... er..." He pauses for a moment to try and think of a better way to put what he is about to say. "...I don't really feel like I know enough to fit in. I mostly just try and focus on my work."
Roman is obviously having a hard time just even being away from the Ravenclaw common room. He looks like he's almost scared about being around other students from the school.
"For every facet of new knowledge that comes with this world is a bunch of things I just don't understand. And well... not really understanding this makes me feel out of place. Like I should know more but I don't." He nervously looks down at the snow, not really having much else he can say. He slowly bends down and plays with the snow. He's obviously worried that he doesn't truly belong here not to mention he already seems like a relatively shy person to begin with.
"A whole new world to learn from is never a pure good thing to live with. There are plenty of hard things you have to deal with. The hardest is definitely the people... the people you know nothing about. The people who know more than you..." He pauses letting the snow run through his fingers. He barely seems there, still processing even Dennis and now he's another person? He's having a hard time, trying to concentrate, trying to understand what's happening, trying to even know what's going on. He can't understand. Roman is too out of his element. Even the positivity of Nellie and Dennis sort of scared him as just trying to learn what to do.

Nellie was just the person he was hoping to meet. Roman didn’t know it yet, but Nellie and Dennis shared a lot more in common than he knew. Dennis, however, hadn’t anticipated how paranoid the blond Ravenclaw actually was about all the new situations. Merlin’s beard, if he’s afraid of snowball fights no wonder going anywhere but class, the library, and the common room frightened the boy. His eyebrows raised in surprise as Nellie asked some really insightful questions. Dennis never would have asked some of those questions but he was pleased with himself that it seemed he was right about introducing Nellie. He only got Roman to open up about his insecurities about homework, but Nellie had him talking at least about more than books and magic. He was both proud of himself for being right and about Nellie because he was also right about her. Boys are weird sometimes.

Now that he was done self-congratulating himself for his insightfulness, his attention turned back to the matter at hand. Roman was in the snow still fiddling with it. In all this internal monologuing and excitement at seeing another friendly face, Dennis completely forgot why it was that it mattered that it was Nellie they happened upon.

“Roman,” Dennis started, curbing his enthusiasm as he saw the other boy was getting increasingly distant and mumbly. Perhaps Dennis came on a little too strong. “It’s ok to be nervous with new experiences. But the fact that you are afraid, yet you still come along anyway proves that you are a true Ravenclaw. We never let anything stand in the way of the pursuit of knowledge and the understanding of new situations.” He offered Roman his hand to help pull him out of the snow.

“For instance, both Nellie and I come from the muggle world. My family are wizards so I don’t always exactly understand everything you say,” Dennis said compassionately, and yet perhaps a little too self-aware and bold about it. “But Nellie isn’t just a great friend and a peculiarly sharp Hufflepuff,” Dennis continued, still just knocking at that fourth wall. “I will let her share her story, but you might find it a comfort that you are definitely not alone with feeling out of place here.” After he dug Roman out of the snow, if the other boy consented, he made a gesture to Nellie. If she got distracted by telling her story to Roman, he’d definitely pay her back for that snowball.

@Roman Ashenvale and @Nellie Lam

Roman gets up out of the snow, looking at Dennis and then Nellie. He sighs as he nods.
"Okay Dennis. I'm sorry about that, I'm pretty sure it's obvious that I don't really do well with social situations..." Roman says, worried that he had completely embarrassed himself already. Roman was still only wearing little to winter clothes but merely his robes. He obviously wasn't bothered by the snow and cold at all, even noticeable from him going straight to the snow itself while he monologued about his difficulty acclimating to this whole new world. He tried to keep his composure but was obviously nervous.
Roman looks at Dennis and sighs. "I completely embarrassed myself, didn't I?" He looked back at Nellie and managed a weak smile. "I suppose I should apologize to you as well for crumbling into my emotions, shouldn't I? I probably should have kept more composure and just letting Dennis lead the way. I'm not exactly the best around other people. Though at this point I'm pretty sure that's completely obvious." Roman's weak smile slowly changed from a weak one to an obviously real one, though he still did have obvious remorse for what he had recently done. It was relatively obvious that Roman wanted to interact with other people but it seemed he tried preventing himself from doing so to doing things like what he had recently done. A very strange combination between being an extrovert and introvert.
"I suppose at this point I should just explain why I came out here with Dennis, shouldn't I? Well, I was kind of having trouble with getting my spells to work. To be honest I don't know if it's me, my wand or both. He suggested that we come out and perhaps get some fresh air and perhaps socialize a bit to try and help me regain composure. At this point I think just venting at the snow might have been a big help in calming me down already..." Roman says, turning and looking at Dennis.

As the three of them spoke, the Hufflepuff among them shoved her hands in her pockets and listened. Her nods and little sounds of understanding showed the girl was paying attention. Roman’s explanation made her brows furrow in concern, but she didn’t say anything. She didn’t get a chance as Dennis introduced her to the struggling boy and touched on her situation. She nodded in agreement with him.

Social anxiety was something Nellie understood quite well and she gave the boy a sympathetic smile. The only saving grace of her brand of anxiety was the fact that she typically did better in situations where the other person was struggling more than she. It was like some Hufflepuff gene kicked in in order to spur the girl towards making the interaction as comfortable as possible. “Nothing to be sorry for, Roman. I get it.” But as Roman continued, Nellie quieted once more, giving the boy a chance to explain himself, nodding in proper places as he spoke.

“So, like Dennis said. I get it. My parents are squibs, but they never told me about magic. I might as well have been a muggle, really. They assumed I wouldn’t have magic so magic was left to storybooks, ya know?” She smiled gently at the boy. “Coming here has been… great. I’ve met awesome people.” She nudged Dennis with her hip playfully. “But it’s really hard too because I feel really really behind. I spend so much time in the study room that it’s like a second dorm for me, now.” Her laugh was sweet and light. “Point it, it’s really easy to feel like you’re alone and the only one that’s in a new world, but there’s a lot of us here. Like… a lot.”

Before Roman had the chance to reply, Nellie grinned and kicked the snow. The resulting puff of snow was aimed at both boys in a playful way though likely wouldn’t have had much of an effect on either. She was merely trying to lighten the mood. Maybe Roman just needed to play.

@Dennis Tumberton @Roman Ashenvale