Back to Basics ((open))

[Olivia Dawson S6]

Olivia packed her things and let out a long sigh. This year had been nothing but boring to her. It was just work, eat, skateboard, sleep. She had gone to no parties, Quidditch games weren’t her style, and she had no pets to keep her company throughout the dreadfully boring year. Not that she wanted any. She didn’t have much love for animals. They were simply just too much work. If the animal used the toilet, fed itself, and didn’t destroy everything in their path, maybe she’d like it. Animals were cute and all, just not worth all the hard work and attention they required. She smiled as she remembered losing a decent few house points for Slytherin when she was caught dueling that surly Ravenclaw. She had been asking for it, and Olivia enjoyed causing little blows to her house. She didn't like Slytherins, not one bit. It was odd, but true. She always felt she should have never been put into Slytherin. She didn't belong in any of the houses, she was just there. She was her own person that had her own traits. She wasn't brave and strong like a Gryffindor. She wasn't honest and loyal like Hufflepuffs. She definitely wasn't smart and cunning; and she was definitely didn't have the pureblood values engraved in her head like most airhead Slytherins did. She was going back home now. Back to basics. No magic, no Hogwarts, no pointless complicated classes about dead witches and wizards who lived ages ago or turning beetles into buttons. It was all pointless. At least she could take a break from all the madness and go back to simplicity, where all she did was skateboard, go to parties, and enjoy herself. She threw her last school book into the trunk and spat on it.

"Won't be seeing you for a while." She said to the ugly History of Magic book. She shook her head and closed the large heavy trunk. She removed her wand and gave it a flick and before long, her trunk was following her onto the grounds, floating in the air behind her. When she reached the carriage she threw her trunk onto the back seat and removed a cigarette from her robe pocket. She was forbidden to smoke indoors, thanks to that old hag McGonagall who complained to Dumbledore. She lit the cigarette with her wand and took a long drag. She had been dying to get outside all day to have one. Upon entering Hogsmeade station, Olivia encountered a cranky professor told her to put her cigarette out. She scowled at the ugly woman the second she turned around. That was okay. She had four packs in her pocket. She had plenty for the ride. She boarded the train and immediately spotted a compartment on the far end. Pretty much all the other compartments were crowded full of people, meaning the late arrivers would be coming to her for a seat. She rolled her eyes and gave her wand another flick, causing her trunk to fly neatly up to the shelf that was made for student’s belongings. She sat down and reached into her pocket again. She had another cigarette lit, and was taking a long peaceful drag when someone walked in on her. The intruder startled her so much that she choked for a bit on the smoke that was trapped in her lungs. She cleared her throat and took a sip of water. The compartment was so filled with smoke that she couldn’t see who had walked in the door. She got up from her seat and opened the window. She coughed a bit more, but sat down and continued to enjoy what was left of her cigarette. Or at least she tried to. It was still a bit hard to see, but most of the smoke had cleared out. Soon enough, it was all gone, and Olivia could finally see clearly. She looked up at the new person.

“Can I help you?” She said rather rudely. “Or are you just going to stand there like a mindless idiot. If you are, that’s fine with me too.”

[Kia Brightstar]

She wanted to go home - she did. Because she couldn't assess her little sisters condition for herself if she wasn't at home, and she had to attend her fathers funeral and, most importantly, she had to be there to support Adam because she knew her older cousin would need her support. It seemed odd to her, to put Adam first when it was her father that was dead and her sister lying on a hospital bed because she was in a coma but it had been Adam who had looked after them when she hadn't been able to. Adam who had looked after her too, when her family had fallen to pieces the first time. It seemed only right to be there to support him now that she could. After all, was Kaelyn not as much his sister as she was hers? They were all certainly close enough to be siblings and they had spent enough time together and knew so much about each other that they may as well be brother and sisters. Her father - on the few rare occasions he had actually been around to see them - had most definitely thought so. In any case, it was hardly a secret that he would have preferred his nephew to be his son, taking the place of his youngest daughter and taking her place in their lives. It would have meant that her mother hadn't died, if Kae hadn't existed, so Kia could half-understand what had led her father to resent her younger sister so much. There would only ever be one Ella Brightstar but, had she not died, there could have been many more children. No, it wasn't at all hard to see why Kae had been resented and ignored.

Kia shook her head, as much to clear her head of her thoughts as to deny to herself that she understood her fathers treatment of her beloved sister, and rose to her feet. That, also, was an odd movement for her. Kia was a pretty, perky blonde who would sooner bounce than walk, rather laugh than frown and would never everbe caught without an infectious smile on her face unless something was seriously wrong. But that was what had changed her. Everything in her world was wrong and it had nearly shattered her. Without a word, Kia left the compartment she had settled in, ignoring the curiously questioning looks of her friends and closed the door behind her silently, almost as if it would have destroyed the tentative control she had over herself if she had slammed the door shut. She managed to make it to the bathroom before she started crying, something that she had been doing far too much of lately. The tears didn't last long. They never did; she never let them. It was a sign of weakness to cry and now was the time that she had to be strong, even more so than when her mother had died.

She couldn't go back to the loud, lively compartment that she had just left, she knew that. It was too hard to sit there and pretend to be the same person she had been on the train ride toward Hogwarts. So, after splashing water on her face in a determined attempt to erase the traces of her tears - and succeeding except for the remaining redness around her eyes - Kia started her search for a mostly empty compartment or, at least, a compartment with people in that wouldn't expect her to be talkative or demand anything of her. A smoke-filled compartment? The idea made Kia raise an eyebrow dully, lacking the energy to have more than a compulsory interest in what the person in the compartment had been doing. The words of the girl however made her bristle inside and provoked the part of her that had once given her so much trouble. Her temper. It was dampened under so much grief and pain that only a small part of it was able to rise to the challenge, but it would be enough to get her through this argument. She hoped.

"Well," Kia answered drily, taking a seat in the compartment and looking at the girl distastefully. "I'm not the one destroying my lungs and my health with those cigarettes - unless you were trying to signal one of your friends by using smoke signals which I highly doubt - so I wouldn't be too sure about me being the mindless idiot."

[Olivia Dawson S6]

The girl standing in front of her seemed to be about her age, only she was a Gryffindor. Olivia had no preference when it came to houses, she treated them all the same. She didn't think Gryffindors were arrogant scum like the other Slytherins her age, although some of them were. She didn't think Hufflepuffs were worthless, although some of them were. She surely didn't think all Ravenclaws were pathetic book worms either, although some of them surely were. She judged based on what she knew, not what other people had told her. Olivia liked to leave it up to the people themselves to show her what they were like. It was the complete opposite of the way her family thought, and that was exactly the way she liked it. Her mother had always thought people who weren't pureblood Slytherins were scum. If that was true, there would be a whole lot of scum in this world. Olivia didn't believe a word of it. This Gryffindor girl looked upset. Her eyes were red and puffy, but Olivia could tell she had tried to hide the evidence. She looked pretty upset at Olivia's comment.

Olivia listened intently, taking in every bit of her snide comments. She had a good point, only it was one she had heard one too many times before. She said something about sending smoke signals to her friends and then she called Olivia a mindless idiot for smoking and 'killing her lungs'. Olivia smirked. She tapped her wand and the smoke evaporated instantly.

"I thought you'd say something like that. And yes, a lot of people would say I was a mindless idiot for smoking, but it's what I chose to do with myself. I didn't mean to tick you off, because trust me, I'm not looking for a full blown cat fight right now. You don't look like it could do any good to you anyway." Olivia sighed as she put out her cigarette.

"If I didn't know better, I'd say you've been crying." Before the girl could react, Olivia cut in. "No worries, I'm not going to ask questions, it's your business. I don't believe I've introduced myself by the way." Olivia threw the cigarette butt out the window. "I'm Olivia. My surname doesn't matter, I don't like to go by it anyway. What about you?"

[Kia Brightstar]

Slytherin, Kia decided impetuously. This girl was certainly no Gryffindor because she was in the common room enough to recognise her Gryffindor year-mates by sight, if not by name. It was, of course, possible for the girl to be in the year above her but somehow Kia didn't think so. She seemed familiar in a way that suggested she shared classes with her. Ravenclaw wasn't out of the question and, to be completely fair, neither was Hufflepuff but something about the girl practically screamed Slytherin. Then again, she could just be letting the curling smoke from the cigarette in the girls hand influence her thoughts and opinion. Wasn't it easier to just write her off as a Slytherin because she was rebelling? But that wouldn't be fair nor would it be truthful. How could it be when Kia herself had been rebelling against anyone and everyone except Maryn just a few weeks ago? It had taken the realisation that her family had fallen apart without her noticing because she was too stubborn and blinding herself to the truth of the situation to bring her to her senses and make her grow up a little bit. Even then, it had been too late. For some reason, as she stood at the door and studied the girl, Kia couldn't help but to hope that the same didn't happen to this stranger.

"It's none of my business what you do in your spare time," Kia admitted with a graceful shrug, backing off with no small amount of relief. "And you're quite right. I'm really not up for arguing right now which is a change." It did feel rather odd to not have the fire of her temper flaring just beneath her skin because Kia always did seem to be arguing. Whether it was a full-blown argument with someone, playful banter with her friends or simply insulting her cousin just because she could and he wouldn't take offence. It was just something she loved to do. Physical fighting wasn't fun but sparring with words could turn out to be interesting and a lot less dangerous.

Her eyes widened in trapped shock when Olivia picked up on her reddened eyes and pointed it out because she just wasn't ready to talk about it - refused to address the issue even in her thoughts, let alone verbally - and to talk about it with a stranger would be a million times worse. Letting someone she didn't know or trust see her at her weakest? Not likely! So Kia only relaed when Olivia assured her that she wouldn't pry into it. Being inquisitive herself, Kia found it slightly odd that she was thankful to have found someone who wouldn't push into her business. Though it was doubtful if even Kia would be tactless enough to ask why a complete stranger had been crying. On the other hand, stranger things had happened than Kia being tactless. "Kia. Likewise, I don't like to go by my last name but it's Brightstar. Mind if I sit with you?" Kia asked easily, thinking nothing of willingly socialising with a Slytherin even if her house was known for being prejudiced against them. What did the opinions of others matter to her?

[Olivia Dawson S6]

The girl introduced herself as Kia Brightstar. Olivia wondered if maybe she had made up her own name, as Brightstar wasn't exactly common. The girl didn't look like one who would create a nickname for herself. Some Gryffindors arrogant, but not this one. This one was put into Gryffindor because of her temper. Olivia would have known this girl's house right away even if she hadn't seen her in her robes among her Gryffindor classmates before. The were talking and giggling around the grounds. They had seemed to immature to Olivia at the time, but that time was over a year ago. Olivia couldn't believe she had remembered her face, it had been so long since she had last seen it after all. Olivia couldn't help but wonder what it was that had made her cry. It was probably something petty like a breakup with a boyfriend, or a dead pet or something. Or could it have been more important? Olivia shared one trait with most Gryffindors, and that was that she was strong. Emotionally and physically strong. She could push a car down a road for three hours, and she barely ever cried. She had only cried once in her life, and that was when her baby sister was born. Those weren't even tears of sadness, they were tears of joy. Olvia was strong, she wouldn't cry for just anything. Whatever Kia was going through, it had to be important. She brushed her thoughts away and returned to her conversation with this Kia.

"So I take it your little incident is what caused this inability to argue, as you say you normally do. I don't blame you though, I would be very ticked off if someone started calling me names the second I walked into a train compartment." Olivia sighed as she lit another cigarette. She made sure to waft all the smoke out the window. If a person didn't like the presence of smoke, she wasn't going to shove it up their noses.

"I've got no problem with you sitting with me. But if you have a problem with me smoking the whole ride, you might want to leave, because that's what I plan on doing. Although you did say it was none of your business, but...it's your call. I'm not going to force you to stay, nor will I kick you out." Olivia was a pretty easy going person. She didn't mind things either way. As long as she had a cigarette in her hand, she was perfectly fine. No problems here. She didn't understand why people thought smoking was so terrible. It had brought her so much peace over the years, she just couldn't think of letting them go. She thought of them as peace sticks, not death sticks like her mother called them. There's nothing wrong with being a smoker. Olvia thought to herself. She was doing the right thing. She was a whole lot better off with those little sticks in her hand. Nobody could ever tell her otherwise.