Transforming Dolls ((Hester))

[charrie]

Annie brushed her hair back from her face and looked in the mirror. She was putting her hair up off her neck. The school had started to warm up for summer and now it was beginning to get increasingly hot every where she went. It was time that she stopped leaving her hair hanging about and put it up. She pulled it up in a half bun half pony-tail. It piled on top of her head and strands of auburn hair pooled down around the top. She sighed. It wasn't the greatest, but at least it would keep her neck from getting hot. She turned from the mirror and placed her books back into her bag. She had to head off to the student lounge to finish some homework. She would do it in the dormitory, but she tried to do that yesterday and ended up falling asleep in her bed and the common room was too loud.

Closing her bag she flicked her wand at it and smiled when she picked it up and it was light. She pulled it over her shoulder and headed out of the dormitory. The loud common room hit her quickly and she rolled her eyes at the sound. Quickly making her way through the common room and heading out of the passage just to run into her cousin. "Where you going?" Angie asked. "I have to do this homework and you didn't keep me awake yesterday to finish it, so I'm heading to the student lounge," Annie sighed. "Don't blame me that you fell asleep," Angie smiled. Annie rolled her eyes again as she slipped past her cousin and gave her a light smack on the shoulder. Angie smiled and faked an 'ow' as she grabbed her shoulder. Annie smiled and headed off toward the entrance hall to head to the main staircase.

Annie climbed more and more stairs as she headed up to the lounge. She had hardly run into anyone on the way and that was an improvement at least to her week. She finally reached the door to the lounge and listened closely to see if anyone was inside. She didn't want to go into a room full of loud students. Silence greeted her ears. She smiled, either the room was empty or all the students inside were being fairly quiet. She turned the knob and opened the door. The room was in fact empty. Annie grinned and quickly went to her favorite table in the back of the room next to the window. She placed her bag on the table and started pulling out all of her books. She sat down and took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. Time to center herself for homework.

After a few seconds of centering Annie finally turned to her first homework assignment. Transfiguration. She opened the book to page 360. They were reading about transfiguring different items on a doll to practice for their class. Annie grabbed the doll she had brought from her dormitory. She had bought it at her last trip into Hogsmeade so she could practice with it. Flipping through the book she read the important parts. Turning back to her doll she flicked her wand at the hair. The color changed from blonde to a bright pink. Annie cringed at the color. That was ugly. She turned back to the book, what did she do wrong? She stopped skimming and actually read the passage. Oh! Annie smiled at her stupidity and quickly flicked her wand again. The hair turned into a natural brown and she held the doll up in her hands. Perfect! At the thought she heard the door of the student lounge open and close once again. She looked up to see who had entered.

[Hester Amythest Burrell]

Hester had been wandering around the castle all morning long, just trying to find a place to get some peace and quiet. The Common Room was noisy, the Grounds were crowded, even the Courtyard had too many people in it for her to be comfortable. Hester wasn't looking for a place to really study, but if that's what it took just to get some time alone, then that's what she would just have to do. She already had her books with her, so that she didn't have to go back to the dorms for anything. Hester didn't feel like having to walk back into the noise of the Common Room just to get any books that she might want or need, so she had brought them on her journey with her.

Hester decided on the Student Lounge, that place was usually somewhat more quiet than anywhere else in the castle. She just hoped that today was no exception. She opened the door to the Lounge and peered around. She didn't see that many people, and she also noticed that there was another Slytherin setting in her usual corner. One person wouldn't bother her much. Hester walked over to her favorite chair which was a plush green one that just happened to be empty and sat down. She looked up at the other girl sitting near her, but didn't say a word.

Hester pulled out her potions book, and began to read. Potions was one of her best subjects, and therefor she really didn't need any revision in the subject, but she thought it might be interesting to read a bit ahead of the class. Just so she could be the one with the intelligent answers some.

((my apologies for the quality of this post. I did not mean for it to turn out so horrible))

[charrie]

Annie recognized the face of a fellow Slytherin and even a fellow dorm mate. Annie wondered if she should say hello, but Hester seemed to be in her own swing of things. Annie just turned back to the doll in her hand and decided on the next step. She needed to work hard at this or she wouldn't be able to do it for end of year exams. Transfiguration was one of her top classes and if she just chose to ignore this project then she would be letting herself down as well as her Alice. She didn't care if she let her parents down, but not Alice. Alice was her mentor and someone that had been more of a mother to her than her real mother had been. She needed this and she needed to pay attention. She ran a finger down the print in the book and nodded as she soaked in all of the words.

After several minutes of rereading and making mental notes she picked her wand back up and pointed it at the doll's right eye. One by one she changed the eyes to a brilliant green. She smiled as she sat the doll on the table. She was definitely getting the hang of this. She looked down at the book. Now it was time to take different items and transform them into clothing. However, as her hand reached into her bag to pull out a few different items her eyes drifted to Hester. Annie hadn't talked with her in a while, not that she really talked to anyone other than her cousin. She had always been that way. She wasn't much of a socializer and she was even less of a socializer when it came to her dorm mates. She didn't know hardly any of them and yet she couldn't help, but think that it wasn't that big of a deal. However, it wouldn't be too long before she was a 7th year and ruling the Slytherin house like the rest of the 7th years would be. It would at least be good to know something about her dorm mates and fellow 6th years now.

"Hello Hester," Annie said in greeting to the girl that was reading. She bit her bottom lip in frustration. What was she going to say? If she had greeted her when she first entered, maybe it wouldn't be so awkward, but now after about 5 minutes of silence and work what was she supposed to say? She fought to find the words to say before just settling with: "What are you reading?" She mentally kicked herself for the words. She was horrible at this whole socializing thing. Maybe she should just leave before she made things worse. She ran her hand through her hair as she waited for a reply to her horrible greeting.

[Hester Amythest Burrell]

Hester had decided to put away her potions book so that she wouldn't seem like such a git, or appear to come off a bit like Granger, who was always studying something. Hester wasn't that way, she didn't care how she did in classes, for it all came naturally to her. She had decided on a book of plays. Although Hester liked the author's style, she found it hard to believe that she was reading a muggle book. Shakespeare as he was known, was a wonderful playwright and poet, and Hester didn't shun him for his blood line. She couldn't help but to fall in love with his writings. Things from such plays as Romeo and Juliet reminded her of things that were happening even in the wizarding world.

Hester wasn't afraid to admit to anyone that asked that Shakespeare was her favorite author, despite he was a muggle. She wasn't afraid to get caught reading the books, and collections of his work that she had managed to find through her journeys throughout England. It was amazing, to discover that Shakespeare had traveled to places that Hester had only heard of, such as what the muggles called the Americas. Hester wished that she could one day travel to these places to see if she could find more of Shakespeare's works.

Hester had become indulged in her most recent play,King Lear when she heard the voice of her dorm mate Anne greeting her. "Oh, Hello there Anne." Hester said being as polite as possible to the girl. "I was reading a play called King Lear, from an apparently great playwright known as William Shakespeare. Although I do not believe that he was a wizard, his words are like magic, the way they flow together and eventually touch the soul." Hester knew that she was once again babbling about the wonderfulness of Shakespeare but that didn't bother her. There were few things that could make her want polite conversation with anyone and this was one of those things.

((So very sorry for the delay in this post. I have been severely sick these past two weeks, and wasn't even able to get on the computer for a week. Hope it's too your liking))