The Helpless Hufflepuff Open Closed

Saskia gave a sigh of relief. Classes were over, which meant she was free. If she was a more responsible student, she would be studying right now- that Potions lesson was really no joke. She almost blew the potion up, and it weren't for a helpful Ravenclaw nearby, she may have had caused a huge combustion in the classroom. It's probably an exaggeration, but judging from past experiences of seeing students mess their potion up, it may as well have happened.

She didn't even want to think about Transfiguration. Too much Math- and besides, why didn't they teach Math here? Maybe if students were actually taught Math, they wouldn't have so much difficulty in all those classes where you'd need exact precision to get something right. But she supposed she didn't have a say in this- apparently nobody bothered to point it out years ago. She was going to have to deal with it for the rest of the school years to come. But for now, she had to rest.

Saskia walked down the stairwell, carrying her books in one hand. She was really getting tired of these stairs, but she supposed it made up for the lack of physical education classes in Hogwarts. Eventually, she came down, and looked at the crowd of students in front of her. 'Great.' She sighed to herself, doing her best to maneuver her way through the students, and after what seemed to be minutes, ended up in a less crowded area of the corridors.

That was when she noticed a lone girl by the windowsill. Saskia cocked her head to the side with curiosity. She seemed rather tired, and yet, she decided to rest by the corridors. It's not exactly something to be judged, but there were other, better places to rest. As she continued walking, the girl calling out, “If anyone is nearby, can you please help me get to the Hufflepuff common room, I'm really, really lost!”

Saskia stopped in her tracks, and turned towards the girl. Apparently she was also a fellow Hufflepuff. She may as well help her, considering she was going there as well. "The Hufflepuff common room? It's somewhere nearby on the first floor. Want me to take you there?"

[quote]Marla had simply been wandering the corridors out of pure boredom. She had been in them about a million times by now, the torches lighting the way in the nearly window-less hallway, mysterious suits of armor carefully placed exactly a few inches away from each other. The low hum of students whispering as they trudged by going to their next classes. However, the small girl never noticed how cool the corridors looked. There was so much that she suddenly wanted to know about it. Where did the suits of armor come from? What were they previously used for? What made that dent in one of the bricks on the wall?

The girl plopped herself down, her red hair that looked exactly like one would imagine strands of fire to be like falling into her face. She shoved her hair behind her ears and took a notebook out of her humungous robe pockets, as well as a quill and a small container of ink. Soon enough, Marla had all of her things sprawled out and she was writing away, etching every detail she found important onto her parchment. The people inside the hallways, the lighting, the tone, the–

"If anyone is nearby, can you please help me get to the Hufflepuff common room, I'm really, really lost!”

A familiar voice interrupted Marla's spell of curiosity, she immediately began to hastily gather her things together, in the process she spilled her ink all over her robes and hands.
"Shoot!" She mumbled to herself, black liquid dripping off of her wrists and down her sleeves. With shaky hands, the girl smudged the ink on her robes until all that was left was a greyish stain on both of her palms. She picked up her notebook and broke into a sprint, in which she looked absolutely ridiculous doing, especially because she was practically the height of a green bean. Or in this case, a red bean.

After what felt like forever (which was in all honestly probably ten seconds), Marla turned the corner and froze. She spotted a girl who she'd never seen before, woah... She was so tall! With pretty, straight brown hair that looked enviously easy to manage. Marla peeked behind the slender girl and immediately broke into a grin. She knew who it was immediately. With her fluffy blonde hair and golden brown eyes, it was almost impossible not to recognize the girl.
"Shannon!" Marla yelled out of sheer excitement, completely disregarding everyone else who turned their way to look at the commotion. She ran over, sitting down next to the girl and giving her an awkward sideways hug.
"It's been so long, I didn't know you went to Hogwarts! Why am I only seeing you now? She cocked her head to the side, eyes wide with amazement. It was so weird to see a familiar face in Hogwarts, yet it felt so relieving.
"How've you been?" She asked so quickly it was almost unintelligible.

Thankfully someone had heard her call. Shannon knew she probably wasn't incredibly lost, but she really didn't feel like looking anymore. Besides, some older student would probably make her go back to studying like what happened earlier this week. Someone had found out how bad she was doing in her classes and started some ‘forced labor’ involving doing homework strictly. Shannon had practically died, died from boredom alone.

Grabbing her books quickly, Shannon twirled around, her blond hair flying like a golden blanket. “Thank you, thank you, I thought no one could hear me—I had no idea I was this close to any classrooms—I don't know where I am, honestly!” She brushed hair out of her face, pushing it behind her ear. Her bright hazel eyes focused on someone behind the girl...did she know her?

She began walking backwards, meaning to walk with the Hufflepuff where they needed to go when this new person called out her name.

“Oh, hey!” Shannon looked confused for a moment, but a smile still rested on her face. The voice was so familiar! The girl came over and gave her a hug. She laughed awkwardly, patting the girl on the back. “Oh, hey,” she repeated. “Hi! I like hugs, too, ha ha!”

Shannon stepped back and pointed at the girl, glancing at the other Hufflepuff. “Yeah, I think I know you from somewhere—did we go to muggle school together, or something?” It seemed like a while ago, but it was all coming to her. “By the way, I'm great! Perfectly awesome, actually. How are you?”

Trying to include the other girl she didn't know, Shannon said, “Sorry—I'm Shannon, like she said. You?”

Saskia nodded at the girl. "It's okay. It's a big school. Everyone's bound to get lost unless they have a map of this place," she reassured, giving her an encouraging smile. She herself had been confused as to where she was going. The last time she remembered being lost was near the when she accidentally ended up at the abandoned toilets when she was heading to her Charms class. She barely made it to her class in time, and the numerous stairways made the trip worse for her.

As she started to leave with the girl, she heard the voice of a second girl- a rather loud one. Her gaze briefly shifted towards the other girl. The first thing she noticed was her pretty red hair, not unlike the colour of flames, and a large amount of freckles sprinkled her face. It was rare to see someone with such vibrant hair, and if she could, she could almost stare at it for hours. She quickly shook these thoughts away, however. She didn't want to feel creepy.

Saskia promptly stepped away from the girl as she rushed in to hug her friend, not wanting to be trampled by accident. She awkwardly shifted in place while she watched the two girls talk. It was obvious they were close. She wondered how they knew each other. It looked like they met before attending Hogwarts, which must have been nice if they needed someone familiar to adjust better. She herself didn't have that same fortune, but she didn't mind. It was equally exciting to be able to take in the new experiences by herself as well.

In the meantime, she considered her options- she could just wait and maybe join in some of the conversation until the two were done catching up with each other. On the other hand, Shannon probably wanted to talk with the other girl personally. In that case, it would have been better for Saskia to leave- besides, she could easily find something else to do. But that would have been mean of her. What if Shannon still needed her to get back to the common room? And she could have at least said hello to the red-headed girl. With that in mind, she remained where she stood.

And apparently, she was right to do so. Shannon was inclusive enough to provide her some context on their relationship. She also asked for her name, and it would have been rude of her to deny her that question. But still, she couldn't shake the feeling that she was intruding their privacy, which was odd, because she's never been so mindful of it before. Perhaps it was just because of how close they were to each other. She imagined it would be inconvenient for some stranger to stand around while two friends just wanted to talk.

She turned to face the two girls with a small smile. "I'm Saskia. It's nice to meet you, both."

After a brief pause, she continued, "Am I interrupting something? I can leave you two alone to catch up, if you want," she offered. If they did want her to leave, at least Shannon had a better idea where the common room was. Or if she still needed help, she supposed she could either find her again, or someone else would guide her. If they didn't, then she'd stay- simple as that.

[quote]"Oh, hey!" Shannon responded, looking a bit disoriented. She probably didn't recognize Marla, but the girl didn't mind, especially since it had been so long. Marla and Shannon weren't extremely close, but she was one of the people that always said hi to her in the halls even though many students tended to steer away from the girl. “Yeah, I think I know you from somewhere—did we go to muggle school together, or something?” The girl added, which Marla nodded to enthusiastically.
"Yeah, at least I think we did.. I'm Marla. Marla Quinlan? You might not remember me but we were in the same class last year. Or– we might have? I hope we did because if we didn't then this would be really awkward." She joked, fidgeting with her necklace, scratching the rust off in a nervous manner. Although she was joking, Marla was actually a bit worried that she had thought that Shannon was someone else and she struck lucky on the name. Pushing aside her thoughts, Marla asked how the girl was doing.
“By the way, I'm great! Perfectly awesome, actually. How are you?” Marla glanced at the other girl with the pretty hair and blushed, realizing she had intruded on a conversation.
"I'm fine too, thanks for asking but uh, sorry if I'm interrupting you guys." Her face was probably blending into her hair at this point, not sure if she should silently fade out and head to the common room or just stand there and hope for the best. But before she could decide, the girl with the pretty brown hair who was also, in fact, a Hufflepuff, introduced herself as Saskia. "I'm Marla, it's nice to meet you too." She said with a small voice crack, which the small girl didn't even know that was possible for her to do. This might be a long day.

Saskia was right about getting lost. This definitely wasn't her first time, she could count exactly three other times in the past two days she'd gotten lost, and sadly she had to ask for help each and every time, none of the people having been Hufflepuffs. It was sheer luck that this girl was one. She wondered if they were in the same year.

So the Hufflepuff introduced herself as Saskia. Shannon wondered where she was from, since it wasn't a common name in these parts, or at least she didn't think so. She made a mental note to ask her later.

“Marla...Quinlan? Oh!” She snapped her fingers. “I remember you! You're the one everyone always talked about—your hair, the girls always said they wished they had yours, that it was so pretty and red.” Shannon agreed; her hair was a beautiful color. “Yeah, I remember you now. We didn't get to talk that much, I didn't want to bother you because you looked like you wanted to be alone—oh, you're not bothering us! Sasha—wait, is it Sasha or Saskia?—she was just trying to help!”

She looked at her fellow Hufflepuff. “We can all go together, even if we're not all in the same house. We can play catch up, even though we don't know each other at all.”

That made no sense at all, ha, she thought, but she continued to grin.

Shannon nudged their shoulders and began to walk, heading towards the courtyard rather than where Hufflepuff was. This would be fun!

Saskia was intrigued that the two of them met in school- she herself never attended any kind of school with other kids. She was tutored- but it wasn't the same. She couldn't normally talk to other kids unless they were dismissed from school, or if it was the weekend, and even then, there weren't many kids she could meet to begin with. From what she learned from the other kids, school varied depending on which opinion she was listening to. For some, school was okay, and yet for others, school was completely dreary. At that point, she just didn't know who to believe.

She sighed internally when Shannon got her name partially wrong. It wasn't too bad, though. She heard worse butcherings of her name. She remembered one time where some kid called her 'Sally', and ever since, they refused to recitfy themselves. She stopped talking to them, but it would have been difficult for her to keep talking to someone who never got her name right. "It's Saskia," she corrected her.

She turned towards Marla. "No, I don't think you were bothering us, either. You were more than welcome to interrupt," she assured.

Then, Shannon turned to her. “We can all go together, even if we're not all in the same house. We can play catch up, even though we don't know each other at all.”

Well, it didn't seem like Shannon or Marla wanted to get rid of her at this rate. And now that she actually wanted her to go along with them, she couldn't decline her invitation. Technically, she could, but it would have just been rude. Plus, she actually did want to go with them. Meeting new people was certainly welcome.

"Fair enough." She shrugged to herself, then followed the Hufflepuff. At least now, there would be a change of scenery, and hopefully, less people crowding the corridors.

She wanted to speak up, but she didn't know what to ask. She could ask something about their friendship, but she felt that parts of the question was already answered through what the girls already said to each other. Instead, she looked around, wondering where exactly Shannon wanted to take them.

After Shannon had recognized Marla, she mentioned that everyone thought her hair was pretty. Ha. That's funny. Marla always thought her hair was a frizzy mess in the most horrid, rust color ever created. And god, she could never, ever wear red without looking like a monochromous mess. And the amount of times she's been asked if her hair was fake... Ugh. Either way, she nodded and mumbled a small 'thanks' despite not believing a word of what she said. Shannon was known for being the nice girl at school, she probably complimented everyone. She wasn't super popular in school for nothing. Marla let out a small laugh as Shannon mentioned that she looked like she wanted to be alone.

"School wasn't exactly my favorite place on Earth, I wasn't very friendly there.." Marla's face turned a bit pink, remembering how absolutely awful she'd been in school. Her reputation was atrocious, considering she spray painted walls, talked back to teachers, and one time she'd walked out of class and left school just like that. The girl got detention for a month. Either way, it was so strange seeing Shannon in Hogwarts of all places. She always associated her with muggle school, and here the blonde was, in a, well, wizarding school.

After mentioning that she thought she was interrupting, Saskia immediately mentioned that Marla wasn't, which caused a relieved sigh to escape her lips. The girl felt a bit out of place before Saskia mentioned that Marla wasn't bothering anyone. Before attending Hogwarts she'd always felt a bit out of place, and Marla didn't exactly grow out of that feeling yet. It was almost like an instinct. If she started a conversation with someone, the girl immediately felt like a burden on the other person's shoulders. It was nice just being normal. Like she belonged.

While suppressing a grin, Marla agreed to walk to the common room with the two, despite not being in Hufflepuff. She didn't have anything else to do, why pass up an offer to get to know the two girls? They were quite nice, after all. The girl jogged after Shannon as she headed for the common room. How could all these people walk so fast? Damn them and their genetic blessing of tallness.

"So.. How has Hogwarts been for you guys? Isn't it crazy that magic is real? I've only heard about witches in books and movies, and here we are, being actual witches!" She rambled with an enthusiastic smile. How could she not? The moment Marla stepped foot into Hogwarts, she fell in love with the place. Even that one kill-joy tree that tries to crush anyone in a mile radius to bits.