Meeting My First Ravenclaw Friend PV Seven Finney

─────"I know German," Seven offered.

Not that they spoke German often. They could, but they never really had a reason to. Everyone they talked to knew English, so why use German when speaking to them? German wasn't even a family language that they spoke when they were at home or with their parents.

Seven had learned German from her father, who was half German, half English. He spoke it sometimes when he was angry, which wasn't very often, or when he was happy and wanted to emphasize his joy.

Seven's father had been born in England, and had never visited Germany. He had always wanted to travel to Germany, but was too busy with other things and hadn't gotten around to it.

Apparently Mark knew three languages, one of them being English, of course. Seven wondered if he knew German, but assumed he didn't unless he had German family members or something. German grammar was difficult to learn. Seven still had trouble with it. They did understand why the grammar was like that, though. It was frustrating, but kind of important to the language.

Anyways, Seven curiously asked, "Which languages do you know?"

It was nice to have a topic again.

─────"Yeah," Seven replied. "That sounds really cool. Like a language swap."

'Language swap'? What's a 'language swap'? Why had they said that? They had been so close to making a new friend and they had ruined it all. Why couldn't they be normal?

"I mean, uh," Seven quickly attempted to cover up that weird stuff with a new sentence, "that seems fun and informative."

Nope, too formal. 'Informative' wasn't a word people usually used. It was something adults said when they were trying to sell items or ideas.

"Fun," Seven added. "Yep, sounds fun. Very fun."

Now they were only making things even worse. It would be best to stop talking. That way they wouldn't embarrass themself any further. Though, if they could just say one more thing, they could fix those previous mistakes. But, there was a possibility that Seven would destroy this new friendship even faster if they did. What to say?

In the end, after a mental battle of sorts, they decided to wait and see what Mark had to say about their strange wording. Would he leave? Going off to find better friends? That seemed a little dramatic to Seven, but they couldn't afford to doubt too much.

─────After Mark was done with his speech, Seven couldn't help but think how straight forward he had been about it. He clearly didn't spend too much time worrying about what others thought of him. He didn't find it hard to be himself.

It wasn't like Seven was always hiding who they were. They didn't do that. They just weren't extremely confident with themself. They didn't want to get embarrassed. All they wanted was a nice friend group. But was it possible that Seven was being too needy? They tried to convince themself that they weren't anything of the sort.

Perhaps, though, they were. A little bit. Most people overlooked the fact that by going to Hogwarts, Seven had been forced to leave their Muggle friends. And those were their only friends. It was difficult to keep in touch with them when Seven had to lie about everything. They couldn't tell Muggles that there was a school of witchcraft and wizardry. Multiple, actually. Beauxbatons, Durmstrang, and Ilvermorny were some of the scattered schools that taught magic.

So, that was why Seven was so desprate to make friends. They were sort of lonely. Lying to one's friends is never an easy thing to do and it had separated Seven from the others.

─────Seven shook their head. "You're right." They added, "You're not being mean."

They attempted to smile as they thought about Mark's words. They could be shy at times, but it wasn't just that. They wanted to talk to people, to get to know others. But it was so hard. Seven was so worried, too worried, about saying something wrong. They didn't want to mess up. So they didn't say anything at all.

It worked. They didn't embarrass themself. Yet, they didn't make friends either. They didn't have fun. Seven was in some zone in between being popular and... not. It was strange, and, at the same time, nice. Having friends was great, but it could get complicated. Seven liked knowing what was going to happen. They didn't like anything to do with mystery. Unless that was the genre of the book they were reading.

Anyways, the point was that while they loved having friends and chatting with people, it was hard for them to begin that process. They often just thought about what they would say if they weren't so nervous. It was okay, though. At least there were people like Mark at Hogwarts. He was friendly, which made him easier to talk to.

─────"It makes sense that none of your friends have called you mean or rude," Seven told him. "You're neither of those things. You're a great person. At least, you seem to be. We just met, but that was kind of my first impression of you. That you're kind."

Seven also smiled. They were glad that Mark seemed like a true friend. He didn't care that Seven could be awkward or that their name was just plain weird. He was nice and they really appreciated that.

Those thoughts brought up a small memory about their name. Seven had often thought about using a nickname. They disliked their real name and a nickname was the obvious solution. However, nothing else was right. In the end, they had accepted that the name 'Seven' was a part of their identity and they couldn't change it. That didn't mean they had to like it, but they could live with it.

Well, that decision had been made quite a while ago and the truth was that Seven had almost forgotten about the whole thing. It was interesting how stuff could just blend into all the other thoughts. Or perhaps Seven had a bad memory. Yeah, that was probably it.