Back Again (anyone)

[lydiarivers]

Lydia Rivers finished putting her mark on the painting she had just finished. Not one of her best works, but not one of her worst either. The corridor was vacant now, but she could still here the distant chattering of some of the new students a few halls away. She didn't know why they had to be so loud. Really, this was a school not a Quidditch game. Speaking of Quidditch, she really couldn't wait till the new season started. She was never really a sports fan until her ex-boyfriend had talked her into trying out for the team. She had bought new Quidditch robes for this year, and she couldn't wait to show the dark green fabric off to her friends.

Lydia wiped the brushes off with a towel and placed them back in her bag. The painting of the hallway had several students in their school robes running down the corridor. Most of them had smiles on their face, laughing at a joke or catching up with their old friends. Lydia didn't feel particularly jubilant or happy. Some of her friends had been injured in the Diagon Alley attack, and one of them did not come back to Hogwarts because of....

Lydia heard a very loud bang in front of her, and she saw a girl, younger than her by all accounts, standing in front of her guiltily. She scanned the floor to see her canvas face down on the ground, and a book near it. " You little mud blood!" Lydia screeched as the girl looked at her in shock. She whirled around with her wand in hand, which was now pointing squarely at the girl. A red glow emitted from the wand, pushing the young girl straight into the far wall. " That teaches you to be a little urchin!" After a few moments, the girl recovered and began to cry. Lydia watched as she ran down the hallway and out of sight.

[crane]

Gary was glad to be back in Hogwarts. It really was like a second home for him just like school was supposed to be. Yet his two homes were so completely different. In Hogwarts he could practice magic and brew remedies and potions. Charms was a very good lesson too and it was useful. You could charm together smaller cuts or conjure up bandages and whatever else was needed. Gary wanted to be a mediwizard one day. Or a doctor. It would be best if he could be both. Gary secret still dreamed of it. He even studied during summer, trying to make sure that he wasn’t too fallen behind in muggle school curriculums. But he was starting to get the feeling that he would have to choose. Would he be a muggle doctor or a surgant for children. Or would he be a mediwizard? It was a hard question but Gary still had a few years before he had to decide completely what to do.

Turning a corner Gary see as a Slytherin pushed a young girl into a corner with a hex. The girl started to cry and took of running straight towards Gary who caught up to her and kneeled down next to the girl.
“Hey, there, don’t cry,”Gary said comfortingly, as he soothed down the girls hair,“You are much to pretty and nice to cry over her. She isn’t worth of having a fairy like yourself cry because of her.”
“I’m not a fairy,”came a sniffled response and Gary smiled as he continued to sooth the girls hair while acting surprised:”You aren’t a fairy? Are you serious about that? But you look just as gorgeous and pretty like a fairy?”
The girl giggled as Gary dried her tears and looked up at him with a small smile making Gary’s heart melt. The girl reminded him so much of his own little sister and how she would always run to Gary if she fell and scraped her knee or when someone would be mean at her. Gary continued to talk with the girl for a few moments pulling a piece of candy out of her hair and acting to the part of it being magical perfectly. Sitting back Gary smiled as the little girl hugged him and watched as she ran away to meet with some friends while holding the candy tightly in her hand.

Gary pushed himself off the floor and turned to look at the Slytherin girl. She seemed a bit older than himself. Gary wasn’t afraid of her as he just stood and looked at her. There wasn’t a challenge or attack in the way he simply stood. He wasn’t defending himself either as Gary left his wand calmly to be in the pocket of his torn jeans.
“Why? Was it really worth making a little girl cry? It is scary. Being alone for the first time in a huge castle with strangers and people who are all older and bigger than she. Is a piece of paper and a few splotches of paint really worth making someone cry?”Gary asked quietly as he stepped forward and picked up the canvas and the book. Leaning the canvas against the window Gary looked at it for a moment.
“Haven’t you ever had accidents?” Gary pulled out his wand still keeping his back to the Slytherin. Some would call it foolish but Gary refused to believe even a Slytherin would stoop as low as cursing his back. Swishing his wand a few times Gary watched as the bit smudged colours slowly crawled back to where they had originally been.
Turning around slowly Gary looked at the Slytherin girl sadly and with pity. “All it took to restore the picture was one spell. But you may have made a lasting impact on that little girl,”Gary said simply as he left the canvas where it was. Taking the little girls book with him Gary turned his back to the Slytherin and walked down the hallway again hoping to see the girl at dinner so he could return her book.

[lydiarivers]

Lydia turned her nose up at the Ravenclaw as he tried to be condescending to her. " Don't give me your self-righteous indignation. I would suggest you leave that to the Gryffindors. However, thank you for fixing my painting. I had been working on it for hours, and that little twerp had to go and ruin it." Lydia nodded her head as the Ravenclaw boy droned on about how she might of scarred the poor girl. Blah, Blah, Blah, yadda, yadda, yadda, etc.

As the boy began to walk of, she acknowledged his presence once again. " I think it is kind of sweet that you must take up for the little mudblood. Of course, that only shows how poor of blood you are. You remind me of that Cassandra Blackfire freak. She does nothing more than try to perpetuate dirty blood. The girl needs to learn her place like all mudbloods." Lydia picked up her canvas and placed it in her bag. " Besides, you don't understand. The perfection and beauty in this canvas has now been ruined."

[crane]

Gary looked up to the ceiling of the hallway for a moment. He wasn’t hurt of being called someone ‘poor of blood’. He was used to it and he didn’t mind. It was someone’s character that mattered, not who they were born to be. “Yes, I am a muggle-born too but I don’t hide it. I’m proud of it. Proud of being able to see all the wonders of wizarding world while not missing the advantages of the muggle world. I do not know that girl you were talking about. Cassandra? Why do you call her a freak? She takes action over her life. It must be hard for her not to fit in completely.”

Gary’s eyes traveled to the canvas as he watched how Lydia packed it up and placed it into her bag:”I think the picture was pretty. And now it is even prettier perhaps. Not only have you put a piece of your own soul into the painting but it also has a history. You will always remember a small girl knocking into it and a ‘poor mudblood boy trying to lecture you’ when you look at that picture. Doesn’t history make the picture even more valueable?”
Gary looked at the girl. She was a Slytherin and she seemed to have a cold heart as she didn’t care about others. She seemed cold to Gary. The Slytherin Queens were mean and tortured muggleborns and those of other houses. But at least they did it with passion. This girl seemed cold and without that little spark in her that would make life worth living. Gary smiled at her almost sadly as he turned and left rounding the corner as he started to descend stairs on his way to dinner.