That May be a Distraction PV Glen Pope Finished

"Oh! Does she go to Hogwarts too?" Serena asked suddenly, realising that she had never really asked about his siblings. In fairness, she was not even sure if the conversation of siblings had ever really come up. Did she ever ask him if he had siblings? Did he have more than one sister? These were important questions! How had they never come up!

Then again, Serena was not really one that spoke about her own sibling very often. He came up now and then but it was not like she went around advertising the fact that he existed. Mostly because they did not really get along, in all honesty.

The conversation was going relatively well. Until, well, the whole spoongate of 2020. She found herself turning red as Glen just stared at her. Was it hot in here? It was starting to feel very hot. Was she sweating? Was it summer already? Ahem. Serena put a finger in the collar of her t-shirt and pulled on it a little. It suddenly felt tight around her neck for some reason. This was so embarrassing. What the heck was wrong with her? Why did she ask if Edric liked spoons! What the heck.

She had no idea how to recover the conversation from here. "I just uh meant that maybe uh, you should give it to him. He's a friend of yours, right? So uh maybe it's a good present or something. I dunno, I guess it's stupid. I mean, who needs more spoons! Ha, ha," She rambled on, trying to make it better but most likely failing.

Where was she going with this? She had no idea. She was just trying. Anything. "I meant uh what does Edric like! Yeah, that's what I meant, what does he like? Does he uh do this woodcarving thing too or...?" She questioned, hoping that made it better. Yes, that's obviously what she meant. Did he enjoy whittling spoons! That was the question, yes, yes. Of course!

“No.” Glen shook his head with a somewhat wry smile. “Not yet, anyway.” He shrugged. “But she's going to after this summer break. I wonder what house she'll end up in.” Ravenclaw, probably, given how much of a bookworm she was. But then, she had plenty of other qualities and besides, he hadn't seen her all that much since he started at Hogwarts – only during summers – so that could even have changed.

“Do you have any siblings?” It was the polite thing to do, right? To ask? Not that he wasn't also curious. (And now he was wondering how many people he knew had siblings. He knew Edric had at least one older brother. At least he was pretty sure that guy had been his friend's older brother, but he didn't know if that was the only sibling Edric had.

But maybe he should table that question and concentrate more on the conversation he was currently having, even though Serena seemed to be weirdly interested in Edric... or his spoon preferences anyway.

“Uh...” Glen cocked his head in confusion. He couldn't follow the thought process that went from uses-spoons to likes-spoons to should-gift-spoons. Or rather he could have understood the second part, ideally you tried to gift people things they liked after all. But in this context... no clue how one got from one to the next.

Which probably meant that she was trying to cover something up? Had he missed something vital that she now tried to cover for him or did she have a – what did people call that again? Mindfart? no... - brainfart. Heck, maybe it was both. But for now, he would table the question of spoons and rather answer her follow-up. Not that that was much less confusion.

“I mean, you could always use more spoons? I mean, they're useful for eating and such. So, their, uh, usefulness will never run out? Probably.” Was he making sense? “Still, I haven't heard of people gifting spoons, really. Mostly tea cups or glasses. But it's an intriguing idea, I guess? Not this one though. It's just practice. Not exactly gift worthy. That would be awkward. Maybe. Right? I don't know, it would feel weird. Edric's a friend” – probably – “not my parent or whatever, I feel like that's something small children would do? The gifting of I-tried-to-make-something things, I mean. Uh..” Aaaand he was rambling again. Great.

Oh. Wait. She wanted to know what Edric liked? Uhh. Hm. Good question. “Well, I don't think he does woodcarving. At least not to my knowledge. He's a quiet guy, I guess? Sorry, I'm really not the best person to ask something like that. I mean, what do people like, really?”

So her question didn't have anything to do with spoons in the first place?? Now he was really confused.

"Ohh! That's really fun. Maybe she'll also be a Slytherin? Though, I do hope she joins the Hufflepuff ranks!" Serena responded with a proud smile and a salute as though they were an army or something. The Hufflepuff ranks. It was a good name, in her opinion, and more than that, it was a great house. Of course, she knew absolutely nothing about Glen's sister, she just thought that his sister would likely be kind of nice if they were similar in any shape or form.

Then again, she was very different to her brother. They did not really see eye to eye on most matters, at least not the important ones. "Yeah, I have an older brother. He goes to Durmstrang though," She replied. His existence was not a secret, just more not something she really wanted to be associated with, "We don't really get along though," Serena added, just to clarify in case they ever met. Though, she was fairly certain they never would. It was not like Arjan would ever come to Hogwarts, right? RIGHT? Of course not!

Serena felt her face turning severely red as Glen just looked at her with this look of... confusion, perhaps. Boy, was it got in here? Or...well, outside. Because it sure did feel rather hot. Tugging on her collar, she swallowed a little, trying to displace her awkwardness. Why in Merlin's name did she choose to bring up Edric?! Who asked about someone's spoon preferences, what was wrong with her?! These were definitely not normal conversations. This, this right here was exactly why she could not talk to Edric himself. That conversation would only go much worse, surely.

"Right! Yeah- I suppose- Well uh, I don't know..." She replied, with confidence and a snap of her fingers as he spoke about spoons being useful and their usefulness never running out. That made so much sense! But then he claimed it would be awkward and her words started to lose confidence. She supposed he was right, it would be a bit like a small child. But... she kind of liked handmade gifts... He ended by asking a question that she just did not know the answer to. Her confidence wavered drastically.

More than that, she felt this... feeling that she could not quite explain. A sense of disappointment, perhaps? A part of her was just hoping that Glen, as Edric's friend, would know what he liked but it seemed like even he didn't. If he did not like woodcarving then, she could not help but wonder what his interests were. She had seen him on the bench of some Quidditch games, perhaps that was his interest. Which would be very good because she loved Quidditch too! So it was perfect, right?

Was it hot here? Her face felt super flushed. Despite the brownness of her skintone, her cheeks had reddened in the whole conversation about spoons as she attempted to backtrack out of it. "I don't really know... Maybe it's a silly idea. But you know- I think handmade gifts are probably the best kind of gifts. Maybe that's just me, but I like them," She responded honestly, "Do you think Edric would like them?" She continued, suddenly wondering if she could make him one.

OH GOSH. Why did she bring him up again? Move on from the conversation. MOVE ON! Serena swooped Pizza Rat up quickly, "Oh! You know! I think that this guy is probably getting a bit hungry. I should go feed him. And uh-" She started to ramble, quickly standing up as her face reddened even more, "Can you uh maybe not tell anyone about this conversation?" She asked. By anyone, she really meant Edric. She did not really care if others knew but she did not want Edric to know. That would only make things even more awkward than they already were. "Well uh, I should go. It was nice seeing you again, Glen, see you around-" She continued to ramble quickly. As she spoke, she could be seen taking some steps away. Before, turning and dashing away back to the castle as she cradled Pizza Rat in her palms. He was definitely her life saver right now.

The conversation was way too awkward to continue. She had no idea if he was hungry but boy, she would feed him some extra treats today! He deserved it!

Thread left fled

Glen chuckled. While it would be interesting to see Amy in either of the two houses, and he could imagine it, yes, “She’s a Ravenclaw if anything. Though honestly I think all the houses would fit her to a degree.” Probably. It was hard to tell sometimes. But Ravenclaw would be his bet.

At her explanation that she had an older brother that she did not get along with, Glen would just nod sagely. “Ah. One of those siblings.” Why did he add that? It wasn’t like he had more than one sibling. Okay, he’d seen crappy sibling relationships, so he could imagine, probably, but he shouldn’t make it sound like he … had personal experience with that. For all that he and Amy sometimes argued, overall they got along well (enough).

Why did he have to suck that much at conversation?

Oh! Crap. He hadn’t meant to imply that handmade gifts were a bad thing. He winced. That … ugh. Handmade gifts were great. Could be great. If you knew the person. And what they liked. And did not give everyone on the street the exact same weird-as-hell sweater thing around Christmas so that they could be ‘merry as the season’. For Merlin’s sake, they weren’t even Christmas sweaters! Luckily the neighbour in question had moved away two years ago, but she’d done that for three (four?) years in a row. And yes, she had given his parents’ ‘his’ sweater even though he wasn’t at home. Aaanyway. “Uh. No. Handmade gifts are great!” – mostly – “but maybe not this particular one.”

Uuuuh. Did Edric like handmade gifts? He didn’t know. Did Edric? Hm. Probably. Edric seemed like the type to appreciate them. Yes. Right? But, should he tell her that if he did not know for sure? He didn’t want to give her false information. It wasn’t like they had a prank war going on, which would excuse purposefully giving false information to such a question. Hm. What do do? “I think-”

But before he had a chance to really answer, Serena suddenly picked up Pizza Rat and talked about his hungriness. Glen blinked. That was a clear change of topic. Crud. He did miss something didn’t he? He would have to research spoons to prevent a repeat of this conversation. He should’ve known that her question had a deeper meaning. Fuuuu… “Uh sure.” Yeah, he wasn’t keen on mentioning this conversation to anyone. Who would he even tell? Was there anyone he could conceivably ask about the spoon thing? Merlin, he could just imagine that conversation … heck no. He didn’t want to embarrass himself further if he could avoid it. Research it was!

“Alright, see you ‘round.”, he would respond to her farewells and return to his whittling, humming cheerfully along. He would tackle the spoon issue the next time he had to go to the school library.

Thread finished.