First Hangout in Hogwarts Finished

Abbey didn’t have any problem finding her way to the courtyard. She knew it was at the same floor as the great hall, which she knew was at the ground floor of the castle. Knowing where she was going didn’t help much with getting there on time though… she was late and ran down the stairs of the first floor. She had just come from the Hufflepuff common room where she had dropped of her school supplies before she was going to meet Holly again and after that eat dinner in the great hall.

The young girl ran down the stairs, through the corridors and made her way through the crowds of students standing in the middle of her way. She was stressed and didn’t want Holly to wait for her, at least not for a long time! When she made her way into the courtyard she couldn’t spot Holly. She looked around standing still in the corner of the courtyard.

She stood there knowing her friend must have been there somewhere. Abbey looked around the whole time before she heard a familiar voice calling her name. She turned to where the voice came from and spotted her best friend immediately.

Abbey made her way over and greeted her best friend with a smile, "Hiii!"

Abbey

@Holly Adams

Holly smiled as well and couldn't stop herself anymore. She NEEDED To know, "How was your first and second day here in Hogwarts? Did you have fun? Is it different from that muggle school you used to attend?...", and about fifty other questions followed. Oh boy. Holly was too energetic from excitement. She almost vibrated.

When she finished with all the questions she had to take a breath. Please do not ask how she managed to get so many questions to ask without inhaling some vital air. Curiosity didn't kill this humanoid cat. But by the last question, Holly felt a tiny bit dizzy. So she sat herself on one of these stony window sills that decorated the courtyard. At least she didn't turn blue. Maybe a bit red, but nothing you had to worry about. It was just silly Holly who overdid herself a bit. The dizziness left soon after anyway.

"So, can you answer any of them?", she asked laughing after she realised what she had done, "Or was I too fast?", she petted the spot next to her, so Abbey could sit beside her. "Seriously, I would be already satisfied if you could answer the first three questions. Should I repeat them?"

Holly
@Abbey Thompson

Holly did talk quite fast as she asked Abbey her questions, but Abbey was used to it and understood all that Holly asked about. She smiled and thought about what to answer for a few minutes. It wasn’t hard questions to answer, but at the same time questions she didn’t want to just give a short answer to. She wanted Holly to know how she was really feeling about going to Hogwarts.

Holly patted the spot next to where she had sat down not long ago. Abbey sat down before she answered any of Holly’s questions at all. "Your good, I heard the questions" Abbey laughed together with Holly. To Abbey, Holly talked a bit fast every time she was excited about something or just really happy. Like she hopefully was now that she was hanging out with Abbey.

"So um, it’s a lot different then the muggle school in Liverpool I went to! It’s a lot harder in many ways and just in general different. I’m having a lot of fun here though and I have met some really nice first years that I think might become my other friends, but don’t worry you’ll always be my best friend!" Abbey wanted the last sentence to be loud and clear. Holly was never going to be replaced with another!

Abbey

@Holly Adams

She listened carefully to Abbey and what she said.
So the muggle school was a lot different in general and somehow easier? Interesting. What do they learn in such a school? Holly did not know. But she found it fascinating and wished to know more about muggles. But now it was Abbey's turn to talk and tell her everything she wanted to say. And Holly will continue to listen.

The last sentence calmed Holly's jealousy and fear. Because, of course, she would be very happy for Abbey to have more friends and also have fun with them. But the fear was still there that there might be someone else there who would take her place. And even worse, was somehow better than her. The jealousy was there when she would see Abbey with someone else having fun together. She didn't want to lose Abbey, but she also wanted Abbey to explore and learn more about this world AND meet new friends. It's difficult but Holly would manage, because that's what friends do. Especially best friends!

So she did what a good friend should do in that kind of situation, she said with a smile on her face, "Really? That's nice!"

Holly

@Abbey Thompson

The things that Abbey found harder at Hogwarts then in her muggle school in Liverpool was to learn. It wasn’t the hardest to learn spells and she knew other first years found it as hard as she did, but learning in a place that she barely knew anything about was difficult. It was hard to explain, but learning about something as new as magic and magical creatures and spells and stuff was just a lot harder then learning about "normal" animals and history for example, because she hadn’t grown up in a world around those things. Learning about something she had grown up with and had been around her whole life was a lot easier than learning about something she had barely seen before or tried to do, like magic. (Hope this made sense)

Abbey was glad Holly seemed to understand that it was true that she never would be replaced with a new friend. "People here are pretty cool! At least the once I have met. Is there any cool people you usually hung out with in your first year?” Abbey asked wanting to know a bit about how Holly’s first year was when she first started at Hogwarts. She didn’t want the conversation just to be about herself.

Abbey

@Holly Adams

Holly had a different experience. She knew about magic, spells, and other things from what she had already seen in the wizarding world or from home. It was something new actually to do it yourself and that in a place far away from home. It was clear as day to Holly that she had an advantage since her learning process was at a different level from the start, so she most likely didn't face the same challenges as Abbey. She really hoped that her best friend knew that she could ask her any time if something was too hard to understand from a witch who grew up without magic. Or ask Alfred. Or her own older siblings, Cynthia was very smart in Holly's opinion. Maybe even a Professor would be okay to ask. Or one of her new friends. Great now Holly hopes she doesn't make herself too worried about Abbey's situation.

Anyway. When she heard Abbey's question, she was a little taken aback. Oh boy.
"I met people. But it never went far with all of them.", that was all but the truth, she never lied to Abbey (except when it was for a nice surprise like a present. Obviously ) "We practically just had one occasion to meet each other and introduce ourselves and that was it.", Holly wasn't fortunate with finding new friends. The more was she happy that Abbey was this lucky.

Holly
@Abbey Thompson

Out of all the people Abbey could ask for help from when she needed it, Holly was definitely at the top three. Her siblings were there too and then her parents when she had the chance to ask them. It was hard asking them for a little help when she was here at Hogwarts, but at home they were definitely the people she would ask first. Sending them a letter just to ask for a few simple questions was a bit too much work.
Holly was a person Abbey much rather preferred to ask for help from than the professors or any of the other students that she didn’t know that well yet. This was at least the case right now at her second day at Hogwarts. Maybe she would ask for more help from the teachers later this year, but for now she was fine with asking her best friend and siblings for help with things.

Abbey thought it sounded a bit sad that Holly hadn’t had people she knew very well that she had spent a lot of time with in her first year, but she was glad Holly had been talking to people and made a few friends. She was more than happy that she could finally go to the same school and be a lot more with Holly! They would most likely and hopefully hang out a lot the years they would be here at Hogwarts together!

"Im glad we go to the same school now and can spend more time together!" Abbey had probably already said it to Holly a lot of times before, but one more time couldn’t hurt.

Abbey
@Holly Adams

Holly smiled, "I am as well!", she probably said that a lot of times as well, but it is just true.

In her first year, she asked mostly her brother for directions. Mostly because, when she sent her mother a letter, her brother would get a Howler that screamed, "WHY ARE YOU NOT HELPING YOUR SISTER?!"... Well... at least she had some kind of pressure to use, kind of like blackmail (who is she kidding? It was blackmail.), so her brother would not push her away.
Always when he was stubborn, she just said, "Okay then I will ask Mom.", and somehow he was ready to help her.

But now, she could stand on her own. At least most of the time. It was enough to pass. So she would be alright. And wouldn't get a Howler from her mother.

Plus now Abbey was her. She can hang out with her. So.
Let's change the topic to something more joyful. (Or better: Something that her curiosity caught.)
"How was the castle in your old school? Was it this big as well?", she asked, "I mean, I do not blame you for being late or lost, because this school is huge. So how did you manage in your old school?", that question was most likey her conclusion, because Abbey was smart enough to make notes. So in Holly's mind, was the idea, that Abbey knew how to manage this situation from her past. Old school perhaps?

Charlotte
Holly
Abbey Thompson

Abbey smiled at Holly. It was weird hearing questions that seemed so obvious to her, but that the one asking really didn’t know the answer of. Just like this question, if her old school castle was big or not. Maybe all the other schools in the magical world were castles just like Hogwarts? She didn’t know, but to her it wasn’t normal at all to have a school in a castle. At least not in a castle the size of the one Hogwarts is! She had just attended a normal public school and those schools were never, or most of the time never, in a castle. In the muggle world or at least in Liverpool, there were not a lot of schools having castles as their school buildings, from what Abbey knew. Her school was just a normal building in the city. When she thought about it, school in a castle was such a cool thing and better then in a boring grey, block house, but she was also glad she hadn’t had such a big chance of getting lost in her school before, like now at Hogwarts.

Abbey didn’t blame Holly for not knowing. She didn’t laugh at her or anything either. "I didn’t go to a school that was in a castle so it wasn’t hard to get to classes and stuff. The school wasn’t huge and it was a LOT easier to remember where every class and room was."

The reason why Abbey hadn’t gotten lost a lot yet was most likely because of her notes, but probably also because she had her siblings here. They had told her a little bit about the castle and on which floor some of the classrooms were on. She hadn’t asked them to follow or show her the way to anywhere in the castle yet, but she knew she could so she would probably ask later if she sometime really had no idea where a classroom or location was.

Abbey
@Holly Adams