Unexpected Meeting PV Carrie Barber Closed

"What else do you enjoy doing?" Carrie had asked. Tina wasn't sure how to answer the question without seeming like a know-it-all. She had spent her entire childhood, learning something new every day and became a knowledge addict. No wonder the sorting hat ended up placing her in Ravenclaw. She may have some strong traits in all the other houses, but they were traits she picked up as she grew. She had been a Ravenclaw since she was born. Remembering how she disliked the classification of people into houses, she shoved her thoughts into the back of her mind. Then she decided to tell her something that not many people knew about her. "I like to hang out with animals in the forests. They can be a little hostile at first, but once you are honest towards them, they'll start to trust you. I miss all of them, but I know I'll see them during school breaks and the summer."

When Carrie said that she was also heading to the small hall, Tina was shocked. She thought she was the only one who enjoyed and appreciated the values of the small hall. Could there be more people like Carrie? She made a mental note to start visiting the small hall more often. "Oh, wow! I was going to do the same thing but with my books. I wanted to have some downtime before classes started."

After Carrie responded to Tina's comment about the house points, Tina felt slightly offended. She wasn't a very competitive person and was very indifferent to winning or losing. She noticed that her fellow Ravenclaws were a bit tired of not winning and wanted to do something to make them feel better. She didn't want to see them reach a point where they lost their spirit and gave up. She sighs before saying with a little too much harshness, "I know it's not a competition. I just wished I was there to see Ravenclaw win for the sake of seeing my housemates being happy."

With a more polite tone she adds, "But it doesn't really matter since I'll still be happy to see Hufflepuff win."

Carrie smiled warmly as Tina told her about befriending animals in the forest. It really seemed like she had found a kindred spirit. While she had been slightly awkward around kids her own age, at least at first, although not quite as bad as it generally was now, she also had been the type to be rather motherly to anyone or anything smaller. Lately, being with pets or other animals in need of care had come rather comforting for her. 

So of course she had to say, "That does sound really nice," then since it had made curious on what sort of enviroment would allow Tina such an opportunity, she then asked, "So, where did you grow up?" 

Carrie was about just as surprised as the other girl upon finding out that they basically had the same idea. "Oh, really? Uh, great minds think alike? Seems we were really bound to meet each other, then, huh," even as she said, Carrie once again wondered on how she would have fared if she had met Tina under circunstances, but she did rather like the idea that theirs had been a fated meeting, in more ways than one. It would be nice to have someone to spend time quietly like that, at least part of it, anyway. She would really to try more adventurous things again, once she could regain the courage for it. Tina seemed like a good companion for that as well. 

Then, to Carrie's horror, it seemed her response about the Housecup had struck a nerve and possibly even offended Tina, just on the sudden harshness of her tone. It was what had tried to avoid, but it seemed like she had failed. She really hoped she hadn't ruined her chances. She had very few friends, specially around here and she had been rather liking the potential  to make a new one. 

While had been managining rather well up till then, Carrie became rather flustured, even more than more, blushing rather deeply in shame as she desperately tried to say, "S-Sorry ... I didn't m-mean to imply you thought it w-was ... I just really am glad to have meet you ... And don't want a-anything to drive us apart ... N-Not that I think you would let something like t-that..." she stopped herself then. That really wasn't working. She was digging herself deeper. Taking a deep breath, she then said instead, "A-Anyway ... I'll be happy for you if Ravenclaw does win this time," flashing a sheepish, genuine smile, hoping against hope that she hadn't screwed up things too badly. 

“Well, I was born in America in a small cottage in the woods, but then we moved to a large mansion in the outskirts of Cambridge in England when I was 6. Luckily it was near a forest, so I would visit the animals there while my parents were constantly busy at work.” She turns to Carrie. “What about you? Where did you grow up?”

When Carrie said she was also heading to the small hall, Tina couldn’t believe her luck. She met one of the sweetest people in the entire world. She never been happier to have made a mess of things She wondered what other adventures the two of them could end up in. Maybe they could swim underwater in the Great Lake with gillyweed. They might be able to start a friendly food fight in the Great Hall and get away with it. Perhaps they could throw a party in an empty classroom. Or she could throw surprise birthday party for Carrie… She asks, casually, “Hey, when’s your birthday?”

Tina didn’t mean to be so harsh, but she was the kind of person that protected her friends. She immediately felt bad for making her feel as if she had done something wrong. She didn’t want to lose one of the few friends she had. With a regretful look, Tina faces Carrie as she apologizes. “I’m sorry. You didn’t say or do anything wrong. I shouldn’t have taken it so personally.”

Looking away, Tina notices that they had reached the girl’s lavatory. She chuckles before saying, “It’s funny how time flies when you're talking to such an interesting person.”

Moving from a remote place in America to a fairly big city like Cambridge sounded it would have been a rather drastic change. At least Tina had something familiar in form of the forest, that likely had made it at least somewhat easier. 

"Oh, I come from London. Mom and Dad work really hard at St. Mungo's, so we never have been away much. This is probably the farthest I have ever been from home." That also had been one of the hardest things about coming to Hogwarts.  And that couldn't nor should distance her from the memories. But she had had to come, at the very least so she could make sure history wouldn't just keep repeating itself and hopefully also so this power could be turned back into a gift instead of a curse and actually help people. "What do you do your parents do?"

Carrie was rather surprised by the sudden question regarding her birthday. That had to be a good sign, right? While it could be just a casual way of learning more about each other, it might also mean that Tina really was planning to stick with her for a while, didn't it? It made also thoughtful on how the date would go this time around. It always had been a rather intimate affair, with family and a few friends, back home. Now, for the next years, it would fall within the school year and thus she would be here when it took place. She hoped to have garnered a few friends by the time it occured, but even then she was not at all sure of what to do about it, if she was up to celebrating it. 

In anycase, meanwhile, she answered, "It's on the fifteenth of March. What about yours?"

Carrie breathed out a sigh of relief when Tina said she hadn't really done anything wrong. Thank goodness, this could still work. However, now it seemed that Tina was the one feeling bad and she didn't want her reprieve to come at the cost of her potential friend, so after taking a deep breath to get herself at least slightly calm again, she then made sure to say, "Oh ... O-OK ... Then you don't have to feel b-bad about any of it either, alright?" while giving the other girl a gentle smile. 

As they reached the lavatory and Tina made her next comment, she giggled in return. That had to be another great sign. She herself had even managed to forget that she was still covered in now drying mud. So she spoke in return, "Yeah, I have been having such a great time as well," while also thinking that she didn't want it to come an end probably so soon. Well, they would still make their way to get their stuff and maybe some more until they really did have to part ways. She would make the best of it for sure. "Well, we really should start getting cleaned up, I suppose" she added, while stepping into the bathroom.

Tina felt a little sad when Carrie asked her about her parents' occupation. For one, she missed them and had only been away for a few weeks. She wanted to write to them, but she wasn't sure where to start. She knew they would be shocked to see what house she ended up in and glad that she was making friends, but she didn't feel like it would be interesting enough. In fact, the mos interesting thing she did since she arrived at Hogwarts was have a mud ball fight with Carrie. Compared to her parents' Hogwarts life, she felt like she hadn't done anything very significant or noteworthy. Snapping back to reality, she quietly answers, "Just some high positions in the Ministry of Magic. I think my mom is some sort of Auror and my dad works in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement..."

"Oh, my birthday passed. It was on September 2nd. I probably would've been a second year if I was born a few days before." She rambles absentmindedly while taking note of Carrie's birthday and planning a surprise party in her mind. "So what would you like to do on your birthday?"

Once they reached the bathroom, Tina was glad her comment made Carrie laugh. She felt she should smile more often. She grabbed a bundle of paper towels, a bunch of soap, and a bucket of water. With a mischievous smile she said, "How about  having a sequel to our mud ball fight?"

Carrie felt that maybe asking about what Tina's parents did hadn't been such a good idea, judging from the up to now rather lively girl gone quiet while answering. Those really did sound like demanding positions and Tina had said she would spend a lot of time in the forest, while her parents worked. If not for her animal friends, that did sound it could be rather lonely. The other girl probably was an only child too, by the sound of it. She could relate to most of it. She was proud of the good her parents did as healers, but it did take them away from her a lot as well. They had been around a lot more in the past few months, likely because of what had happened. She was thankful for that. She probably would have coped even less with everything if it hadn't been for that. 

Well, it seemed she had missed the chance to celebrate Tina's special day by a bit this year. And it would always fall out of the school year, so she wondered about what to do about it next time, if things worked out well enough. She could probably at least owl her something, she supposed ... 

"Well, I really don't know yet ... There is quite a bit of time until then though, fortunately," she then answered the question about birthday plans. How did people usually go about celebrating such things here, she wondered. Specially if there were people from different houses that they would like to invite?

Once inside the lavatory, she eyed the large ammount of supplies that Tina got rather curiously. Once the other girl's intentions became clear, she smiled in return and said, "Ooh, interesting ... What do you have in mind?" 

"I actually have a couple of ideas in mind. We could make a water slide, throw water at each other, or make bubbles. Which one do you want to do?" She asks, wanting to know what would interest her. If they were going to get clean, they might as well do it the fun way. She knew it was pretty childish, but she had to make the most of her youth since all the Hogwarts schoolwork was bound to make her dull and mature. Despite this small fear, she still enjoyed learning and was pretty excited to begin attending classes.

"What would you say is your most and least favorite main classes?" She asks. She liked Transfiguration, because she enjoys a challenge. She also likes DADA and Charms, because she thinks performing spells are exciting. She enjoy Flying, because sometimes walking is tiring and it give her a different perspective. She doesn't really like Astronomy, because she doesn't get the point of the class. She thinks potions is easy and useful, but she doesn't hate or love it. She finds History of Magic to be quite interesting, but wonders if its homework would be more of a burden rather than entertaining. She had always been more into the animal aspect of nature rather than the plants, so she has no opinions on herbology. "My favorite classes are DADA, Charms, Transfiguration, Flying and maybe History of Magic. My least favorite class would be Astronomy, but I'm ok with Potions. I don't have much of an opinion about Herbology."

"Oh, wow, you sure do have rather creative and fun ideas, Tina! That all sounds good, but ... Water fight seems the most appropriate, considering our last activity," Carrie replied.

She was much less worried about potentially getting in trouble in this situation. Unlike mud in the corridors, water and soap was quite natural to be found in a bathroom. They might have to mop up any excesses, but it would be alright. She was more concerned regarding how they get dry again afterwards, particularly their clothes, specially since they didn't have any spares in hand. Blow dryers were obsviously not an option here, even they had one. Their best option was likely do what they could with towels and such, then head down to the laundry to try handle the rest. 

Carrie considered carefully on the matter of what she thought about classes. The subjects most involving spells were exciting in theory, but she was still rather terrified of her own magic. She supposed that with time, Charms would probably sit the most alright with her. Most things potentially taught there would at least somewhat useful and least likely to cause harm. Transfiguration was potentially dangerous if not done correctly, but if she could get right, it would be likely fine. Defense Against the Dark Arts made her the most uncomfortable. While the class had some purely defensive skills that she would love to learn, a good deal of it seemed to involve spells meant to cause direct harm in various degrees. Even if meant for self-defense, that wasn't that would ever sir right with her. She had come here largely to learn how to avoid that, not do it more. But she knew it to be also important towards healing, so she would have to try her best though. Potions was useful and also important for her future. Herbology appealed to her nature of wanting to take care of things and a lot of plants had potential medicinal uses both in and out themselves and when applied in potions that she wanted to learn about. The prospects for Flying were both exciting and scary. History of Magic had the potential of being interesting, but it could also end up being tedious, specially the homework. Stargazing could be sometimes fascinating and beautiful, but she was not at all sure how Astronomy could be useful. 

With all this in mind, including certain aspects that she was not at all yet ready to divulgue, she then answered, "I'm excited for Charms, Transfigurations, Potions and Herbology. Flying seems a bit scary, but also exciting.  I'm not sure yet how to feel about History and Astronomy. As for DADA ... Let's just say that is probably gonna be my w-worst subject ..."  

Tina couldn't help, but to admire Carrie. She was kind, caring, and easygoing. She wondered if there were anyone that was like her. She didn't think there could be anyone that would be so willing to go with her crazy plans. She kinda wished she was in the same house as her so they could spend more time together. She could've told her some funny stories from books she read and practice spells together, giving each other advice on how to do better.

She couldn't help but to wonder why DADA would be her worst subject. She didn't seem like a bad or negligent student who didn't care about grades. Maybe she was a muggleborn who was scared of the dark side of magic. Or perhaps she was a wizard born who was scared of the dark arts fit to recent events. As she divided the water between by placing it into multiple buckets, she asked, "Not that it really matters, but are you muggleborn, halfblood, or pureblood?"

 After she finished dividing the buckets, she says, "Now all we have to do is throw the water buckets at each other. Do you want to go first or should I start?"

Carrie was relieved that Tina hadn't asked why she felt the way she did about her future prospects in Defense Against the Dark Arts. The underlying reason for such a fear was messy and still rather too raw to explain.

She felt rather fortunate to have encountered  Tina. She had to admire someone who was this outgoing and confident, yet gentle and friendly at the same time. She herself likely would have been too filled up with fear of rejection to propose ideas such as the ones the other witch had.

Keeping in touch with Tina might prove to be at least somewhat difficult due to the fact that they were in different houses, but she would definitely try her best to.

She was surprised by the sudden question regarding her blood status. Fortunately, it really did seem that it was being asked in a casual manner and not like the other girl would really judge her based on such information. So she then promptly responded, "I'm halfblood. What about you?" Since both of Tina's parents worked at the Ministry, she had to be at at least halfblood as well, but it seemed only fair to ask it in return. 

"I think I would like to go first time," she then said. Since the main aim of such an activity, other than to have fun, of course, was to get them cleaned up, she felt even less self-conscious than she had with the mud throwing. She carefully hefted one of the buckets and stepped a bit back, then threw its contents forward in a large gush.