Quills, Quips and Missing Quiet PV Graci Laren

Amelia’s blue eyes were so focussed on an infuriating paragraph that she took not even the tiniest bit of notice of the girl who was coming towards her. Had Amelia seen the friendliness on the girl’s face, her reaction might have been less sharp. Yet, the mountain of homework the first year had been given had caused her temper to flare.

Amelia viciously scribbled yet another sentence, hoping that she could finish her homework soon, and finally be able to relax. Surely it would only take another hour! Putting her quill down, Amelia looked up just in time to see one of her piles of books topple over. Most fell splattering off the table, a few landing with a flop on top of her parchment, one exceptionally rude one knocked over her ink, causing it to splatter a little over her hard work. In all honesty, the effects of collapsing books weren’t really that bad and the ink had only blurred one sentence and smudged a little of the paragraph, but Amelia was absolutely infuriated by such a disruption and mess.

Amelia’s blue eyes flashed up in anger towards the culprit. Her voice, filled with frustration and a cold sarcasm, echoed slightly through the library. “Do you mind? Unlike you, I am trying to do something, and I would rather not being buried by books.” Glaring, Amelia pushed her ink pot away from the parchment with an exaggerated movement. “Well, are you going to clean this up or not?” she snapped in pure frustration.

With an annoyed sniff, Amelia brushed at her paper as if to exaggerate the marks that had been made. Amelia knew she would probably regret her rude words later, even if it was in the silence of her dormitory late that evening. And yet she didn’t care a great deal about civility in that moment, only finishing her work and now having this mess cleaned up promptly.

Amelia should have taken back her words when Graci hurriedly attempted to remove the mess. Well, she should never have said them in the first place. She most certainly should have taken it all back when the girl started profusely apologizing. That’s if you could take words back. But, even an apology would have been better than the frown of disapproval that Amelia gave her.

Guilt clouded Amelia’s thoughts, causing her to give a small grimace. There was no reason to react so dramatically, even if her work had been important and effortful. Perhaps she was the one who ought to be apologizing. Opening her mouth, an apology forming, Amelia had almost begun, but the girl spoke once more. It seemed her opinion on the situation was beginning to change a little too.

The girl’s next words came forcefully down on Amelia, and she looked up, her face a blotchy red of frustration. Not only was she in a horrid mood, but once someone started, or continued an argument, she wasn’t going to stop. Amelia spat out her words at a rather embarrassing volume, not considering what she was saying, “Who am I? I’m the one that was busily studying, while you lazily flit around bothering people. Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to continue my work because you just ruined it. Is that ok? Thanks!”

Midway through her tirade, tears begun to fall, clouding her vision. Frustration mounted now, why did she have to cry whenever she was angry? It was plain embarrassing! Scowling as best she could, she wiped her face. She paused in her attempt to collect her books, of which there were far too many, to look and gauge the girl’s expression. Somewhere, a little deeper than where her rudeness had come, she wished she could have just accepted the girl’s apology.

Tears trickling down the glaring first year’s face, Amelia tried to contain her frustration once more. It was completely unfair that this had to happen today. Why couldn’t this girl have knocked someone else’s books? Or at least done it on a different day? Maybe then they could have been friends. And most of all, why did we have to get into an argument? It was completely unfair. Unfair, unfair, unfair. Amelia couldn’t help ask herself the final question, the one that was entirely her fault, why couldn’t she have simply accepted the girls apology?

Sniffing haughtily, as she listened to the other girl, Amelia began to pile up her books in an attempt at orderliness, and so she could stalk off in a moments time. Unfortunately, doing so is quite difficult when your reading material is half the library, and you are trying to look dignified while crying and glaring! So, all in all, Amelia was failing at each and every one of her missions.

The tone of frustration in Amelia’s returning voice was mounted by a another topple of tears now. She paused a second, feeling slightly guilty at the mature words being spoken compared to Amelia’s childish ones. Lacking a good comeback, she merely snapped back, “It doesn’t matter what you were doing, and that your lying to yourself now. You still knocked over my books and your still here being a pain.” Her voiced had reached a unusual sharpness. “So, if you don’t mind, could you… annoy someone else!”

The crying had stopped now, leaving her face a blotchy red. An embarrassing blotchy red. The pause in the tears was a good thing, but the apologies of this girl were bearing deep into Amelia. With a haughty glare, Amelia once more began collecting her things, completely ignoring the other girl. She had decided one thing. If she was going to forfeit her homework space, she wouldn’t be leaving without… a slightly dramatic exit.

A tiny spring of tears trickled down Amelia Lerelle’s face, leaving it toned red and blotchy. She attempted to wipe them away, yet they continued to fall, simply leaving her flushed skin as a stark contrast to her usual pale features. Why did she have to cry? Why?! As the gryffindoor spoke, in an almost civilized manner, Amelia felt frustration pound through her chest. It was unfair! All of this was unfair.

The cause for their argument was slowly being forgotten by the Hufflepuff, yet her frustration had only become more heated over the continuance of their dispute. Being the somewhat stubborn girl she was, Amelia was determined to ‘win’ the argument. She wouldn’t be the one to leave. She would be the one to continue on with her homework, in the place she had sat at all morning.

Turning to the other girl with a haughty sniff, still overcome by the intruding tears which were now lessening, she waited. Part of her felt undeniably guilty at her childlike behavior in comparison to the far more mature acting girl, yet the agitation was blocking her view to think clearly. She returned, sarcasm smirking through her tone, “Good for you, but you might have to try harder next time!” She snapped, her temper bubbling viciously, refusing to let her calm down. “Now if you don’t mind, I have an essay due tomorrow, so go rant about your issues to someone else!” Her voice had become higher, and was at the volume where people could hear it a little too much.

Truthfully, Amelia hardly ever got this upset in public, let alone spoke in such a rude manner towards other people. The overload of homework piled into her little pool of troubles had, quite frankly, tipped her over the edge. The first year knew that as soon as a departure occurred all she would want to do would be apologize, and start fresh with the girl. If the other girl had of started screaming, Amelia’s insolence might have been excused, but as it was she had acted in a manner extraordinarily polite under the circumstances.

The glare still knotting at Amelia’s features, she grabbed a rather large history of magic book and flipped it open to a random page. Making a great show of ignoring the other girl, she began to read the page slowly. The question was if Graci would say anything more, anything Amelia couldn’t ignore. Or would the girl be left alone with her homework and the guilt that would come very soon?