Friendly Encounter Open Closed

Phoenix tucked her completed homework back in her bag. She got up from the table stretching a little as she did so. She had been sat there for the better part of an hour working through a particularly challenging potions question and decided it was finally time to go and get some food.

She was making her way out of the overcrowded library when she walked past a table and something caught her eye. There was a girl sat sketching surrounded by what appeared to be Quidditch books.

She didn’t want to disturb the other girl who seemed deeply immersed in her drawing but Phoenix couldn’t help getting a little closer, discreetly, so that she could take a look. The drawings were really good and Phoenix smiled at the detail. She loved Quidditch and absolutely couldn’t wait to try out for the team. The drawings on the girls page reminded her of the very first quidditch game she ever went to see, her dad holding her on his shoulders, her brothers cheering and her mum snapping pictures, giggling at their enthusiasm.

“Wow. Those are really good,” Phoenix startled when she realised that she had actually sad the words out loud and hoped that the other girl didn’t hear her, not wanting to be caught looking over her shoulder.

She hadn't realized the girl had come behind her, until she heard her voice "Wow. Those are really good". She didn't know how to react to this, had she been watching her draw the whole time? At least she had gotten a compliment. "Oh, um... thanks" She smiled at the girl, and scooted over a bit "Want to sit with me?". She thought this had sounded dumb, getting a compliment and asking if she wanted to sit with her. But, anyway, she had learned a lot about making friends since the beginning of Hogwarts. Usually, this was the situation of her making a new friend, but as always, she had no great idea of how to start a casual conversation. She seemed nice, and Amaya hadn't met a lot of Slytherins. The whole idea of "evil Slytherins" had gone from her mind, and now she just wanted to make some friends. She moved over the wall of books she had made, and stacked them over by her on the table. Ever since her first year, she had loved Hogwarts and everything about it, and even though she was still shy and a bit awkward, she was determined to have friends her whole seven years here. "Oh, I'm Amaya!" Of course she would have to tell her name, and she wondered if she was talking too much..

“uhh thanks. I didn’t want to bother you but they’re really good. I love Quidditch,” The girl seemed really nice, an opportunity to make a new friend maybe. “Oh that’s a really cool name. I’m Phoenix!” Amaya had never thought of her name as cool, surely the name Phoenix was cooler than hers. She was named after a giant magical bird, and Amaya was named, well, Amaya. She stared sliding the drawing closer to her, and Amaya had the urge to stop her, but Phoenix and started sliding it back. "oh, uh, sorry," She was being really kind, respecting her privacy “How often do you do this? The drawing I mean,”. She thought of how to answer this. She had drawn millions of muggle things, and now she was at a school of beautiful new things to draw. Of course, she was raised in the wizarding world, but she had never expected it to be this amazing. "Well basically my whole life," She didn't want to bore her with her life story "but I've been drawing a lot more since I've come here". She could've hidden in the shelves like usual, but she was glad she hadn't. She had made a friend. She had made a friend that she thought of as "cool". She had a cool name, a happy family, and Amaya sort of looked up to her for that. She also thought she was really pretty, but she wasn't going to tell her that. That would be really awkward, but she might like the compliment.

Phoenix listened as Amaya told her about her drawing. She was glad that she had walked this way round to leave the library. Maybe this was an opportunity for her to finally make some friends.

“That’s so cool. I guess there’s a lot to draw here. Being in a huge castle in the mountains right,” Phoenix gave a small laugh at her own poor attempt at a joke before ducking her head a bit, embarrassed. Phoenix has never been scared about what people thought of her and she would never let somebody walk all over her, she was in Slytherin for a reason after all, but she was keen to make new friends and she knew that meant she needed to mind what she said. As her mum always said “Someone can be sweet as sugar on the outside, but you can never know what someone is truly thinking.”

Unsure of a new conversation starter, Phoenix went quiet for a moment. Then she thought of what had inspired her to come over here in the first place.
“So, uh, have you ever played Quidditch? Like at home. Or been to a game? I remember my first game and it was totally the best thing ever!”

“That’s so cool. I guess there’s a lot to draw here. Being in a huge castle in the mountains right,” She laughed, and ducked her head a bit to the floor. "Yeah," Amaya gave a small chuckle, "the views here are beautiful". This girl seemed far more interesting than her, and she was curious to learn some about her, but right now it was just casual conversation. She hadn't noticed the Slytherin emblem on her robes, usually Slytherins weren't as nice as she was. She wasn't trying to stereotype them, but this girl seemed like she would be better in Ravenclaw or Gryffindor. “So, uh, have you ever played Quidditch? Like at home. Or been to a game? I remember my first game and it was totally the best thing ever!” The one question that made her feel a bit awkward, she was terrified of heights. She would need to learn how to ride a broomstick, and her fear made her feel a bit dumb, but she'd tried to ignore it since she had gotten here. "Uhh... no I've never actually played Quidditch," Her dumb fear of heights had prevented her "what was your first game like?". She could learn a bit about her supposed new friend, she obviously loved Quidditch. She probably went to her first Quidditch game with her family, and she could picture her and her parents, and maybe a few siblings? She seemed really happy talking about her favorite sport, and Amaya didn't want to really change the subject. Of course, it was a little bit awkward for her, because she didn't really know a lot about Quidditch.

Phoenix smiled again when Amaya asked her about her first match.
“It was absolutely brilliant! The Wimbourne Wasps vs Puddlemere United. My family are Wasps fans through and through. Dad got us some really amazing seats and I remember my mum dressing my up like a little wasp. I was sat on my dads shoulders most of the night and two of my brothers kept pretending to sting each other. Then everyone was making buzzing sounds during the penalties, it’s something we do to try and put the other team off. I must have only been around 4 or 5,” Her grin only grew as she was talking. She was absolutely in love with the sport and could talk about it for hours.

She suddenly had a thought. Amaya seemed nice enough and Phoenix was keen to make friends. She turned to Amaya and said eagerly.
“Hey next time I’m going to a match you can come along. If you want. You don’t have to obviously but uh those are really good drawings and maybe seeing it in action would give you some more inspiration,” Phoenix didn’t want to seem to forward, this girl might not even like her anyway, but the idea of taking a friend to a Quidditch match instead of being stuck with just her brothers was exciting.

Phoenix's smiled widened “It was absolutely brilliant! The Wimbourne Wasps vs Puddlemere United. My family are Wasps fans through and through. Dad got us some really amazing seats and I remember my mum dressing my up like a little wasp. I was sat on my dads shoulders most of the night and two of my brothers kept pretending to sting each other. Then everyone was making buzzing sounds during the penalties, it’s something we do to try and put the other team off. I must have only been around 4 or 5,”. She could picture it all happening as she spoke, seats filled with hundreds of people, and players soaring through the air above everyone, it seemed amazing. She grinned from ear to ear, as she happily asked Amaya “Hey next time I’m going to a match you can come along. If you want. You don’t have to obviously but uh those are really good drawings and maybe seeing it in action would give you some more inspiration,”. Of course Amaya would want to go, it would be amazing! But, she didn't want to sound too eager "Yeah, i'd love to come!" it would be so fun to go with her. It would help with her inspiration, she could get ideas for art and her stories, and Quidditch seemed like such an amazing sport. It was hard to hide her excitement, thinking she might actually go to a Quidditch game with a friend! She could only imagine what it would be like! Hundreds of people, sitting so high up... and there was the thing to ruin it. Her dumb fear of heights. Maybe this could help her get over her fear? Probably not, but it still seemed fun. She had never really gone to a Quidditch game, of course her parents had offered, but she thought it would be awkward sitting up so high and being terrified, all while trying to hide it from her parents. Yeah, that didn't really seem like "fun" to her.

The pair seemed to lapse into a friendly silence after a moment, Phoenix being lost in her thoughts about her next Quidditch match. Her fingers came up to her long blonder hair, twiddling with it while she tried to think of another conversation starter. Amaya didn’t seem to be as talkative as Phoenix and she worried that maybe she was intimidating the other girl. She had been told in the past that she was quite intimidating and she knew if she had any hope of making any real friends then it was something she needed to work on.

As she was thinking the library door opened again and this time it was a face that she recognised. A very tall blonde, Ravenclaw boy entered with a couple of other boys. It was Phoenix’s brother Knox, who was in his last year at Hogwarts. He smiled over at Phoenix and gave a small wave, which Phoenix returned before turning back to Amaya.

“Do you have any siblings? That’s my older brother Knox,” she pointed in the direction of the boy who was now picking out a few books. “Maybe you’d know him, he’s a Ravenclaw,” Phoenix had noticed from the other girls robes that she was a Ravenclaw. It made sense too as she seemed extremely intelligent even from the short conversation they’d had.

They had fallen into a short silence, but it was broken by Phoenix waving at a boy across the room, and asking “Do you have any siblings? That’s my older brother Knox,”. She pointed at the boy “Maybe you’d know him, he’s a Ravenclaw,” and Amaya looked over. She didn't know him, she knew of him. She'd seen him walking through the halls, and around the school. "I haven't met him, or really gotten a chance to speak with him" It was true, she had no idea who he was. Now she knew something about him, he was related to Amaya's new friend. "Oh, I'm an only child" She realized she hadn't even answered her first question "but I've always wanted a younger sibling". She could imagine, sharing her knowledge with a young sibling, teaching them about Hogwarts, passing down books and quills and robes. She could help them with homework, or classes they were struggling on. But, this would only be if they were a Ravenclaw. She could easily imagine having a sibling in another house, maybe a Gryffindor? "I've always wanted someone to share things with, you know?" She trusted her, she could share some things about herself, right? She probably wouldn't judge her, it wasn't that weird to want a sibling. When she was younger, she and her muggle friends used to pretend that they were siblings, and have dumb games on playgrounds. They sometimes would pretend that they were witches, of course that was always Amaya's idea. She could just hear they're laughter as they ran and jumped around. It was one of her happier memories.