Squids and Strangers PV Ruby C. Closed

The Fawley heir, the child subject to so many rumors and able to be polite and civil in pureblood meetings, was stomping through the water. Her hair flashed between vibrant rainbow colors, as Eris attempted to summon the squid out of the icy waters. It was nearly winter already, and thus the chill of the water was frigid on the voluminous black robes of Eris' small body, as she carefully stopped her stomping to peer into the murky waters, debating the merits of dunking her head under the ways to look for the squid under the waters instead of trying to summon it to the surface.

Life was full of so much suffering and pain, and Eris had been dealt a nasty hand of cards. When she was 10, her mother had kicked her out and her father had run away at an age that Eris couldn't remember. Somewhere between nine and ten, she supposed. At 11, there had been a small reprieve from pain through the amazing and awe-inspiring trip to Hogwarts. Even at a school of magic, there was still trauma to be found. One would think that magic on its own was beautiful and didn't need anything else to it. Yet, there was still innate trauma and issues to be found, considering the size of the castle and all the people in it. One couldn't go through life without troubles, not in a school so huge First, there was the troubles and tribulations of masked figures and burnt Hufflepuffs. Then, there were the mounting rumors and tension involving the strange name of Rowell and it's closeness to Rowle and the few secrets Eris was able to share about her family.

Then the explosion of pureblood life. For a pureblood girl, Eris was remarkably childish. She was even more childish for one who was a second year. Eris seemed more like a seven-year-old than a twelve-year-old. Splashing in the water and jumping up and down like a child splashing in rain puddles, Eris crossed her arms and swayed, carried away from the motions of stomping. Her small body swayed for a second, as Eris flung her arms through the air in a sweeping motion and giggled.

To someone else, it would seem strange to see the two girls in the water. To Eris, it was perfectly normal to be playing in the water. It was a temporary way to get away from the troubles of being a pre-teen in a school that seemed to expect children to grow up far too fast. After all, they were only preteens, not wizards accustomed to real life. Did they not deserve to have some fun? Life wasn't all drama and troubles. There was happiness, and Eris deserved to have it. As did the Ruby girl who currently stood in the water next to Eris.

"I don't see the dang squid anywhere! Why won't it come out?" Eris pouted, still peering down into the abyss of water with an impish expression on her pale face.

Ruby's first year had been going pretty well so far. However, she was still beginning to worry that she'd never become close friends with anyone, not the way she wanted to be. She eyed her fellow student carefully another time. Eris seemed to often be lost in thought, which was something that Ruby found happening to herself a lot. The Gryffindor also seemed to have been through a lot of suffering, judging from the expressions that had flashed across her face previously as well as her name – who she was. Was there any way the young Slytherin could help? She felt bad, she really did, no matter what had happened. Had the second year been very involved in the events of last year that Ruby had heard a few whispered tales of? Most people didn't want to talk about it, which was understandable, from what she knew of it.

Trauma was something that was near impossible to forget about, but it was definitely a sore topic that plagued people's thoughts, lurking below the surface, persistently living on in someone's feelings and mind. Compared to many students currently at Hogwarts, Ruby hadn't suffered at all. She'd had a pretty good life so far, with the way her parents acted aside. That left her with plenty of room to pity others, even if she selfishly chose to not dwell on it too much for the sake of her own feelings and general state. It surprised her, however, that she truly didn't know many of the things that older students had experienced last year. Her three favorite cousins – two of which were Gryffindors and one of which was a Ravenclaw – hadn't even been willing to talk about it, and those boys told her practically everything. They were some of her main sources of information! If they wouldn't tell her, who would?

Ruby took a moment to silently be thankful for all the privileges she had been given and that she hadn't had to suffer yet. She shouldn't have had to, after all, as she was only 11. How hard it must have been for the current second years to be welcomed into the magical school, only to be made to face hardships and trauma the likes of which no child that young should ever have to. Sadly, judging from the school's history, it seemed like that was fairly normal for Hogwarts. Ruby hoped that it was something unique and wouldn't come up again in the future. Why was there so much evil in the world, anyway? Couldn't humans just be nice to each other?

Again, Ruby looked thoughtfully at the girl next to her. This seemingly tough yet miraculously childish Gryffindor girl with the beautiful rainbow hair seemed to be such a mystery to the Slytherin. The second year seemed to have so many secrets and troubles that Ruby would never even imagine. Somehow, through it all, she still seemed to be happy, and Ruby admired that a lot. It took a strong person to be able to do that so easily. Eris certainly seemed intriguing…

Ruby was pulled out of her thoughts once again by speech. Clearly, Eris wasn't pleased with the squid's refusal to show up. Neither was Ruby, to be honest, but she made a few more calculations. Judging by the frequency of the squid's appearance near the Slytherin common room, the amount of times Ruby had seen the large creature outside before, and the two sightings this trip and the length of time between these, it should show up within the next minute or two. Should she point that out? Probably.

“I don't know exactly why it doesn't come to see us more, but I made a few calculations, and I've figured out that it will make another appearance within the next two minutes,” Ruby began. She squinted at the lake and reminded herself of which direction the squid had been heading. Losing herself in her calculations for one more moment, she remembered the distance between the squid's surfacing. That meant that in approximately two minutes from now, the squid would appear right… there. Ruby's hand lifted to point at the spot before she realized she was doing it, so she quickly started to explain. “It's also going to appear there, or somewhere within a 5-metre radius of that area. Keep watching it, and I promise you'll see it.”

Ruby's calculations had never failed her before. Now, there was the tense period of waiting until she was proven right or wrong. She also wanted to get to know Eris better and there were more things she wanted to say, but those could wait when there was such a short time frame to spot the squid right now. All other thoughts had faded from the Slytherin's mind as she leaned forward slightly, lifting herself onto her tiptoes and sticking her arms out near her sides at a specific angle that was optimal for steady balancing. Strands of dark hair blew into her face, but she ignored them, craning her neck slightly and watching the specific spot where the squid would undoubtedly appear…

Eris was busy staring into the water. Right now, she was busy thinking about the lake. Were there fish in the lake? Or did the squid eat everything? How did the squid even eat? What did the squid eat? Maybe students. That would have been funny if they had spent the whole afternoon searching for the squid, only to be eaten by it. They could then live in its stomach like that character from that movie. Eris had forgotten most information about movies, but she was fairly certain there was a movie where something lived inside the stomach of a giant dog or whatever. Shrugging, she leaned down even more, only to retract her head from the water and turn to stare at Ruby when she spoke. Eris’ jaw dropped faintly, as Eris’ eyebrow raised and she bit down on the myriad of questions she now had.

How on earth was Ruby so smart? Whoa. Calculations? At this point in time, Eris hadn’t exactly started to focus on her studies. She was in the midst of a year that was violently horrible, to say the least about it. Her moods fluctuated between horrified, depressed, and spontaneously happy-- as she was in the moment. Moodswings, some would call it. But, because of the way that Eris had become a complete and utter emotional funhouse, it meant that anything involving studying had been pushed to the backburner. She did her work, sure. But, it was lazy and often unfinished. There wasn’t a lot of energy she exerted into anything besides wandering around and complaining until that became too much and she slipped back into that outer shell of false happiness that lead to things as strange as trying to find the giant squid. Then that happiness wore off and she was back to wandering around school and brooding. Maybe there was some kind of terminology for whatever she was suffering through, but that would involve actually talking to people about deep things instead of typical conversations about the weather or whatever distraction Eris was trying out in the current moment.

Eris personally didn’t have a name for whatever emotional turmoil she was going through. Nor did she need a name for it. She didn’t have the time to really stop and think about whatever was coursing through her head, for stopping to think would mean lamenting. That would mean thinking and actually reacting to the sadness. She didn’t want to react, to feel anything besides happy and brave. Lamenting over her course of action and her life would then instantly make Eris think about the reason that this year had been horrible. Which, was too much work to even bother focusing upon. She was perfectly fine with just stopping around outside, even if she did feel a flash of shock about how smart the pureblooded Slytherin next to her was. How the heck was one able to easily just calculate thing about a giant squid coming up for air when they didn’t even learn maths in school?

Was there a secret math class that Eris wasn’t aware of? Eris shrugged her shoulders, harbouring a secret image of a math class in the dungeon, full of glasses-wearing nerds and severe teachers. Maybe the Potions professor taught some weird muggle math class. It could be one of the conspiracies of the school. One of the lesser ones, to be fair. There was a great share of things that were hidden in Hogwarts, and most of them were not pleasant. That being said, Eris had long since agreed with herself not to think about those dreadful things lurking in the hidden passageways and secret classrooms. So, while she harboured the idea of a secret Math class, she decided it was best to forget that particular idea for the time being, just so that it didn’t bring up any unsavoury memories of the other conspiracies of Hogwarts.

“Dang! You’re freaking smart. Calculations and stuff? That’s so cool. I was just gonna sit out here all day and wait to see if the squid came out.”

Eris followed Ruby’s hand towards the spot in the middle of the lake, squinting her eyes and falling silent. She waited patiently, or as patiently as Eris could do anything. Again, she really didn’t want to focus on anything for a long period of time, as her thoughts were prone to wander and drift. Humming under her breath, rummaging around in her robes for a Sugar Quill. Finding two, Eris unwrapped the blue one and stuck it into her mouth, before turning back to the lake. She highly doubted that small moment of turning away had led her to miss the sighting of the squid, as there would have been some noise of splashing or a gasp from Ruby.

Sucking on the sugary treat, relishing the distraction from her thoughts in the form of sugar, Eris then held out the other neatly wrapped pink Sugar Quill and pointed it in Ruby’s general direction. “Do you want one? I have an endless supply of sweets in my pockets, just cause I raided the Hogwarts Express Trolly at the start of year and haven’t been able to get rid of all the sweets.”