Closed Birds of a Feather, Stick Together PV Scout Fu-Hai

september 1st, 2023		friday, evening
wc: 750		dhampir | sensitive to sunlight
interacting with: @Asteria Nagla		mentioning: wrinkly hat & lear i suppose

The train ride to Hogwarts was peaceful, Scout thought. Flashing scenery going by, the ever-present sound of talking that was just out of earshot to hear what was being said, but loud enough to hear the laughs of other students. She was okay with sitting along, if just to gather her thoughts. Typically, Scout was the kind of person to quiet the loud speaking in her mind with other people's presence, but there had been nobody to open the door to her compartment, and nobody to talk to the whole time. She'd feel a bit like a nuisance if she were to go to someone else's compartment to sit, so she decided to just buckle in.

This... was different, though. The voices of her future classmates- the laughter, the shouting, even the occasional shrill of a scream- echoed so loudly through her ears she wondered if she'd go deaf. Following into the Great Hall was a new experience, too. For the next months of her life, she'd be eating in this hall every single day. There wasn't any food yet, but her father promised her that there would be soon, and there'd be plenty to enjoy.

Which lead to the 'soon' part. She'd have to get sorted. An exciting thought, definitely. The wrinkly brown hat would soon decide who'd she be housemates with for the next seven years, maybe even who she'd be sleeping in the bed next to for that period of time. Though she had been told a few times that people come and go from Hogwarts, but she figured that the people she'd be dormmates with would stay the same, anyway.

With a last name that started with 'F', Scout was one of the first people called up. The Headmaster had a nice smile, she thought, but why was he wearing armor from the 1700's? Scout had heard many times that the staff at Hogwarts were rather quirky, maybe that was part of it. She thought the hat was weirder, though. What a wrinkly old thing.

"Wrinkly?" Was the first word she heard as soon as it was placed atop her head. "What a rather odd thing to say, when you get as old as I, those become badges of honor!"

"But you are wrinkly." Scout replied, folding her hands in on one another. "You're noisy, too. Do you talk all the time?" She asked, looking up to see the brown fabric of the Sorting Hat. "Do you talk all the time?" It had asked in return, and she knew the answer before it could finish the question.

"Yeah."

"Gryffindor!" Oh... okay then!

The table clad in red cheered loudly, and she thought the color of Gryffindor matched nicely with her hair. She had decided to choose the first seat she saw available, between two older years that welcomed her with a 'good job!', and a 'welcome to the best house', which was nice. Her father had said Hufflepuff was the house with the nice students, which was coincidentally the house he was in. Scout didn't bother to connect the dots.

After what felt like hours, though couldn't have been more than half, the sorting ceremony was over. Scout hadn't been paying attention, but there was a name that she couldn't have missed. Asteria Nagla, a new Gryffindor. Asteria might not have seen where Scout had sat down, or she was too uninterested to care, so Scout decided to move to where her cousin was after the ceremony had ended.

"Hey, hey!" She called, pushing through a small gaggle of first-years to sit down next to Asteria. "How 'bout it, were both in Gryffindor!" She took note of the food Asteria grabbed from the plates in front of them. Scout was hungry too, but she wanted to talk before she plated herself up with food from cuisines she had never tried before. A dark pudding that other students called gross? Of course she'd want to try that!

"I'll write home tomorrow and tell dad and 妈妈 about it, and I'm sure he'll tell 叔叔 about your house, too, even if he won't know what any of it means." She took a pause from talking, looking around at the students that surrounded them. "Can you believe that this is going to be where we get food every day for the next seven years? I'm really excited, are you?"

Interacting: @Scout fu-Hai | September 1st, 2023| WC: 378 |#ff6988

There she is.

Asteria’s loud, cheerful cousin makes her entrance.

"How 'bout it, we're both in Gryffindor!" and there her worries settled. Asteria couldn’t say she had any in the first place, however.

She turned to meet Scout’s eyes, “of course, why would either of us ever be separated?”

"I'll write home tomorrow and tell dad and 妈妈 about it, and I'm sure he'll tell 叔叔 about your house, too, even if he won't know what any of it means."

“Poor 叔叔, he’s going to be loaded with information,” Asteria sighs. Almost immediately after Sout speaks again. "Can you believe that this is going to be where we get food every day for the next seven years? I'm really excited, are you?"

Huh, for the next seven years or more, this is where Asteria will be staying. She didn’t really give it much thought, she would be more focused on making sure she has everything she needs for classes and making sure nothing goes wrong. Honestly, it weren’t for Scout also going to Hogwarts she would’ve just been a reserved nerd with her nose in her books.

“I guess I'm excited, I haven’t given it much thought. I’m sure you’ll fit right in however.” Asteria wasn't going to lie to her cousin, there was no point to. She honestly thought Scout would become incredibly popular due to her being a natural social butterfly. “Is there anything you look forward to? I hope their beds are comfy.”

Asteria was hoping for a long answer to be honest, so she got comfortable in her car and listened patiently. Talking a lot wore her out and she liked hearing Scout talk. Of course, Asteria didn't admit she liked listening to her cousin. Asteria liked to stay as unemotional as possible.

Usually, if it were any of her brother, Aki, she would’ve spaced out by now, but Scout was different. She loved all her family members equally, she truly does. But Scout was always the special case, it’ll most likely stay like that.

So even if the smallest thing she’s willing to do is to listen, then she shall.

Without realizing she spoke out loud her thoughts, “I’m sure you will make these seven years worthwhile for everyone who meets you Scout.”

september 1st, 2023		friday, evening
wc: 310		dhampir | sensitive to sunlight
interacting with: @Asteria Nagla		mentioning: meow meow meow

"Oh yeah, I totally bet their beds are super soft and nice. My dad told me that the house elves keep the beds warm for us!" Scout pauses and looks at the food around them. Though most of it is from English cuisine, there are some popular staples from other countries, burgers and pizza that Scout had never heard of before! Considering her dad exclusively cooked Shanghainese cuisine, she hadn't really explored much other options. Not that she would under normal circumstances, she was a sucker for her dads cooking.

"And I bet you'll make tons of friends too, Asteria!" Scout insists. "You know, you're really funny when you don't mean to be. And sometimes you sound mean but in a funny way, if that makes sense?" She could hoot and holler at some of the things Asteria would say, especially if she hissed a comment at one of their aunties without anyone hearing.

Though Scout was far more sociable than Asteria, she was far, far more insecure than Asteria would (hopefully) ever have to know. Though of course, Asteria knew about Scout's deepest insecurities considering they were best friends, and they both knew everything about each other. But Scout was pretty content with not letting anyone in her family ever know how she really felt anyway. Not that it mattered.

"Let's have a competition, huh?" Scout eggs Asteria on, punching her shoulder. "How about this, at the end of the year we can compare who has more friends!" The answer would be pretty obvious, but Scout felt good about her competition with Asteria! The latter was unlikely to make deep enough connections with people to consider them 'friends' or closer, whereas Scout considered everyone she met her best friend.

She'd definitely win!

Interacting: @Scout fu-Hai | September 1st, 2023| WC: 381 |#ff6988

Making friends wasn’t Asteria’s strong suit. Part of the reason is because she always seemed unapproachable; not that it was her fault in her head. If people started to not fear her because she has a resting angry face, she would have so many friends.

The whole school would be friends with her. Is what she likes to think.

It doesn’t help your chances of making friends like there's no tomorrow when you end up sleeping in the middle of their conversation. Not that that has happened to Asteria before… never.

“Someone’s confident, you’re not very good at hiding it. I can assure you that I will be winning this competition, there’s never been one I lost.” That was lie,

2nd grade there was a spelling competition for the class. It wasn’t a competition, just a spelling test, but in the eyes of Asteria, it was a fierce battle between her and all her classmates who she may or may not have considered idiots to her. This was before she developed any sort of empathy. Long story short she spelt one word wrong and it ruined her whole day. This is one of the many tales of Asteria to never be told to Scout.

Because to Asteria, Scout was a better person than she is. She’s a lot nicer, maturer, and smart. Honestly, Asteria would have ever gotten over her childish,selfish ways if it weren’t for Scout.

She wanted to be a person Scout could rely on, admire, strive to be. Not the other way around, Asteria isn’t willing to give up her pride that easily.

“You have to get to know the person before considering them a friend, like knowing more than just their favorite color and what house they're in.” Asteria said, suddenly gaining more energy than before. She always had a drive to win, regardless of the situation; tying back to the spelling bee story. “Writing it down would be a good idea, you don’t want to embarrass yourself by forgetting or misremembering simple details.”

There was a high chance of Scout winning, but Asteria would somehow find a way to best her social cousin. Plus, writing down information would help her note taking skills.

“Rid of that grin now, I'm going to win no matter what.”

september 1st, 2023		friday, evening
wc: 300		dhampir | sensitive to sunlight
interacting with: @Asteria Nagla		mentioning: Mia Fuzy & Victoria Lena Jones

What was so bad about being confident? Forgive Scout for wanting to take advantage of the fact that she had previously had negative ten friends, and she was given an opportunity to make new ones! Besides, if she made a whole bunch of friends at Hogwarts, she could tell her parents that she was fine! It'd drive a point home.

"What would you consider a friend? Like what specifically?" She asked, poking at the vegetables on her plate. "Because like... I'd say if I knew someone's name and they knew my name and we could talk... like that's a friend to me." The 'we could talk' portion of her sentence was the most true. In Scout's eyes, if she could have a conversation with someone- simple or complex-, that was the one thing that made them a friend to her.

A 'best friend' would be someone she could tell her vampirism to and not be afraid of the backlash, i.e. Asteria. Though, when Asteria had found out about the whole 'being a vampire' thing, it was probably less hectic in comparison to the 'being a witch' thing, which Scout understood. Finding out that you can cast magic is more involved than finding out that your cousin who you only see once or twice a month can bite people.

"You know... I've already met other witches before this!" Scout brags, looking over to the other tables. She has a bit of trouble remembering the names of who she met, but she knows that one of the girls she had met prior was named Mia, and she thought she would be a Slytherin. There was another girl with a rat that Scout had thought was a ferret. "When I was out shopping with my dad, I met a girl named Mia and this other girl- I can't really remember her name- at Diagon Alley. So I kind of already have the upper hand!"

Interacting: @Scout fu-Hai | September 1st, 2023| WC: 203 |#ff6988

“Excited aren’t you?” Asteria comments. It was all good though, it really didn’t surprise Asteria to hear Scout has already made a few friends before even arriving here. That’s something Asteria couldn’t do and thus impressive.

In the back of Asteria’’s head, there was that lingering thought that this year was going to be terrible, nothing will go right or Asteria would just stay in bed if not studying. It was on par for Asteria to do such a thing so it shouldn’t really amaze Scout.

She quickly brushed those thoughts away, there shall be no negativity. It was only the beginning after all, and when one door closes, another opens. However, that saying goes anyway.

This year was indeed going to be an exciting year, no one could deny that. Asteria should get some of Scout’s excitement, otherwise how would she make her 1st year here be enjoyable?

Everything washes away however when Asteria eyes start to get heavy and the nose that was once so loud starts to quiet down. Curse her, why is she getting tired now, she still had such a long day ahead of her.

“I’m getting a bit tired,”Asteria says, “I wish I had your energy…”